MIDEAST: Palestinians mark the 1948 war during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee their homes.

Record ID: 838700

  • Title: MIDEAST: Palestinians mark the 1948 war during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee their homes.
  • Date: 15th May 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IM MOHAMAMD, PALESTINIAN WOMAN, WHO SAYS SHE WAS DRIVEN OUT OF HER VILLAGE IN 1948, SAYING: "We were leaving, running away, we would have died in our land. Gone are the days when we used to have hope to go home to the Sawafeer (Safouria). When we left, we left our goods and all of our belongings saying we are going home. We left everything behind as we ran with our children, we said God we just want the children we don't want anything else, everything was left in the Sawafeer (Safouria)" CLOSE OF GIRLS FACE WITH GREAT GRANDMOTHER'S HANDS AROUND HER HEAD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) IM MOHAMAMAD, PALESTINIAN WOMAN, WHO SAYS SHE WAS DRIVEN OUT OF HER VILLAGE IN 1948, SAYING: "God willing we will go home, my children and the children of my children, one is in Kuwait the other is in Canada another in Amman (Jordan) they are apart, I hope that god will reunite them at the Sawafeer (Safouria) my children and grandchildren. It's been seven years I have not seen them"
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEDBH020ZFKXIZZTNZ7V0S20S7
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  • Story Text: Palestinians marked the 58th anniversary of Nakba on Monday (May 15, 2006), an annual Palestinian day of mourning over Israel's establishment 58 years ago.
    During the 1948 war hundreds of villages and towns that were inhabited by Palestinians were depopulated and razed.
    Im Mohamad, an 83-year-old refugee from Safouria living at Deir AlBalah refugee camp, sits in the narrow streets with her great Grand-daughter. Age and hardship is evident on her face and hands.
    "We were leaving, running away, we would have died in our land. Gone are the days when we used to have hope to go home to the Sawafeer (Safouria). When we left, we left our goods and all of our belongings saying we are going home. We left everything behind as we ran with our children, we said God we just want the children we don't want anything else, everything was left in the Sawafeer (Safouria)," Im Mohamad told Reuters when asked why she left her home.
    She smiled and said that she'd given up hope of returning to her home but prays her sons, daughters and their children one day will.
    "God willing we will go home, my children and the children of my children, one is in Kuwait the other is in Canada another in Amman (Jordan) they are apart, I hope that god will reunite them at the Sawafeer (Safouria) my children and grandchildren. It's been seven years I have not seen them," Im Mohamad said.
    On Nakba day, Palestinians march in the thousands throughout the Gaza Strip, West Bank and some even venture to Lebanon bearing banners with the names of Palestinian townships now either razed or renamed in Israel.
    Arabs went to war in 1948 over a U.N. resolution dividing Mandate Palestine into two states, one Jewish, the other Arab. They said it was unfair to lose over 50 per cent of what they deemed ancestral lands to accommodate Jews from all over the world, seeking a state after the Nazi Holocaust.
    The Jewish population before 1948 and the creation of Israel was significantly smaller in number than that of the Palestinian Muslims and Christians who lived on the land.
    "The situation we are in today is created by the Nakba. The cause of the situation is the Nakba. It brought the reality we see today and that which is coming. The Nakba is a series from May 14th '48 till today the Nakba is the same, it breeds off one another," Mahmoud Mhasin told Reuters as he talked about the hardships of the situation since Hamas won legislative elections and formed government.
    The United States and European Union consider Hamas a 'terrorist' group, and have agreed with foreign donors and local and international banks not to transfer funds or financial aid to the Palestinian government, in part fearing U.S. sanctions.
    As a result, Hamas has virtually no income to run the government, which is already around $1.3 billion in debt.
    The restrictions, which also include Israel withholding $55 million a month in tax revenues it collects on the Palestinians' behalf, threaten to strangle economic life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where 3.8 million people live.
    According to the UNRWA website there are 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.
    Many refugees still hold the keys and deeds to their homes as a symbol and a reminder of what they left behind, 58 years ago.
    "These key are from the country (Palestine). The keys to the stores under the house," Sheikh Abu Raed father of nine and a refugee at the Beach refugee camp in Gaza said.
    "I also have land ownership documents, I can't get them now, but I won't sell not one document for millions of dollars," he added.
    Zaid Barada, a refugee from Safouria took his daughters and grandsons to his old town where Israeli Tsafouria stands today.
    He gave them a tour and showed them the old fig tree from which he ate as a child.
    "This fig tree I ate from more than once, when I was young I used to come here from the age of four-five years old, I used to pick figs off of this tree" Barada said.
    He then scooped dirt from under the fig tree to give to his family along with the deeds to his land.
    "These are ownership documents am going to hand over not to my son only, but to my grandson so they can move forward. I am going to take some soil in order to deliver it to Sweden, Canada and Denmark because when I called them and asked what they wanted, they said they did not want any gifts only soil," Barada added.
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