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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/ethnic-cleansing-everyday-reality/16691"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/ethnic-cleansing-everyday-reality/16691">https://electronicintifada.net/content/ethnic-cleansing-everyday-reality/16691</a></a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Ethnic cleansing is an everyday reality</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits"><span class="field
field-publication-date"><span class="date-display-single"
property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2016-05-16T19:27:00+00:00">16 May 2016 - </span></span><br>
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/yara-hawari"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Yara Hawari</a></span></div>
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<p>Thousands marched last week to commemorate the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a>,
the 1948 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing">ethnic
cleansing</a> of Palestine.</p>
<p>Held in the southern <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab">Naqab</a>
(Negev) region for the first time in 19 years, the 2016
March of Return is being hailed as the largest such
event for Palestinians living inside present-day Israel.</p>
<p>Organized by the Association for the Defense of the
Rights of the Internally Displaced, the 12 May protest
emphasized that the Nakba — Arabic for catastrophe —
continues today.</p>
<p>Not only did participants assert the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/right-return">right
to return</a> of Palestinians uprooted and exiled in
1948, they also drew attention to Israel’s ongoing
efforts to internally displace Palestinians inside its
de facto borders.</p>
<p>The annual event has previously been held in destroyed
villages in the northern <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/galilee">Galilee</a>
region. The significance of the geographical move was
underscored by activist Rafat Abu Aish, one of the
march’s organizers.</p>
<p>“The Nakba continues in the Naqab,” he said.</p>
<h2>Villages destroyed</h2>
<p>Abu Aish cited the demolition of Palestinian homes and
the proposed uprooting of tens of thousands of
Palestinian Bedouins as examples of the present-day
ethnic cleansing in the Naqab. Though implementation of
the latter proposal — known as the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/prawer-plan">Prawer
Plan</a> — was halted following major protests, Israel
has not stopped <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/patrick-strickland/palestinian-bedouin-homes-demolished-israel">destroying</a>
Bedouin villages.</p>
<p>This year’s march focused on Wadi Zubalah, a village
destroyed and ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian
Bedouin population in 1948. Its expelled residents were
resettled by military order to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/umm-al-hiran">Umm
al-Hiran</a>, another village, in the 1950s. They have
lived there ever since.</p>
<p>The survivors of that expulsion and their families are
now facing further displacement.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the Israeli high court <a
href="http://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8550">ruled</a>
that plans to destroy Umm al-Hiran and displace its
residents may proceed. The Israeli state wishes to
replace the village with a new Jewish town to be called
Hiran.</p>
<p>Activist Raed Abu al-Qian spoke of how his family had
been forced out of Wadi Zubalah.</p>
<p>He brought his four-month-old daughter to the march,
arguing it was important for the young to come and see
“the land of our grandparents and the well that they
used to drink from and the houses that they used to live
in, to know our history so they can continue coming
here.”</p>
<h2>Hope</h2>
<p>Muhammad Kayal, one of the founders of the Association
for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally
Displaced, said that participants in this year’s march
“include school pupils, university students and even
younger children, from many different parts of society.”</p>
<p>He noted that many regard themselves as
third-generation Nakba survivors. Any expectations that
the Israeli establishment may have had of young people
forgetting about the Nakba have been confounded.</p>
<p>“These third and fourth generations are holding on to
the right of return more than the first and second
generations,” said Kayal. “They have hope.”</p>
<p>Holding the march in the Naqab was also an attempt to
counter Israel’s efforts to “divide and rule”
Palestinians.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ilan-pappe">Ilan
Pappe</a>, a well-known historian who has been active
with the Association for the Defense of the Rights of
the Internally Displaced for many years, said: “The
Naqab was not always associated with the struggle of the
Palestinians in Israel due to the state’s attempt to
accord a unique position to the Bedouin community. “</p>
<p>“Having the central commemorative event in the Naqab
strengthens the connection between all the Palestinians
inside Israel,” he told The Electronic Intifada.</p>
<p>During the rally prominent figures in the Palestinian
community inside Israel — including lawmakers <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ayman-odeh">Ayman
Odeh</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haneen-zoabi">Haneen
Zoabi</a> — were called forward to mix soil from the
north of historic Palestine with the soil of the Naqab
in the south.</p>
<p>With hundreds of Palestinian flags on display, many at
the march referred to the right of Palestinians in
refugee camps in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/syria">Syria</a>,
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lebanon">Lebanon</a>
and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan">Jordan</a>
to return home.</p>
<p>“The right of return of the internal refugees is
strongly associated with the general Palestinian right
of return,” said Pappe. “No matter what the Israeli
official policy is, no matter what would be the tactical
calculations of current Palestinian politics, this is an
individual right that cannot be traded or abolished by
anyone.”</p>
<p>For millions of Palestinians, the Nakba is not an event
that belongs to the past. It is an everyday reality.</p>
<p><em>Yara Hawari is a final year PhD candidate at the
University of Exeter and a freelance writer. She lives
in occupied East Jerusalem.</em></p>
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