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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-israel-nakba-marked-right-return">https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-israel-nakba-marked-right-return</a></font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Palestinians in Israel mark 73 years since Nakba, affirming right of return</h1>April 15, 2021</div>
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<p>As Israel celebrates independence day, Palestinian citizens participate in the annual March of Return</p>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/images-story/Mask-clad%20Palestinians%20demonstrate%20along%20the%20controversial%20separation%20barrier%20at%20the%20western%20entrance%20of%20the%20northern%20West%20Bank%20city%20of%20Tulkarem%20marking%20the%2072nd%20anniversary%20of%20Nakba%2C%2016%20May%202020%20%28AFP%29.jpg?itok=bbO5dfJ_" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="451" height="297">
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<p>Palestinians demonstrate along the controversial
separation barrier at the western entrance of the northern West Bank
city of Tulkarem, marking the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba, 16 May 2020
(AFP)</p>
<p><span>Published date:</span> 15 April 2021 15:57 UTC
<span>| </span>
<span>Last update:</span> <span id="gmail-date-updatedago">30 mins 20 secs </span> ago </p>
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<div><p>As Israel celebrated its independence day on
Thursday, hundreds of the country's Palestinian citizens marched to
commemorate the anniversary of 1948's Nakba, in which some 800,000
Palestinians were driven from their homes to make way for the creation
of the state of Israel. </p>
<p>The event has come to define the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Armed
clashes began in late 1947, after the UN passed a resolution dividing
the land between Jews and Palestinians, then escalated in 1948, when the
new Israeli state was proclaimed. </p>
<p>Zionist armed militias forced Palestinians from their land amid the creation of Israel on 15 May.</p>
<p>Israel began celebrating its 73rd independence day on Wednesday evening, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.</p>
<p>Coinciding with the celebrations, Palestinian citizens of Israel,
whose families were uprooted in the 1948 war, visited several destroyed
towns and villages that once housed their ancestors, reiterating, as
they have done for decades, their desire to return. </p>
<p><span><span>The Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Displaced</span></span>
(ADRID), the organiser of the annual March of Return, which first
started 24 years ago, called people on Thursday to participate in online
demonstrations and activities due to the Covid-19 restrictions.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/what-is-nakba-palestine-israel-conflict-explained-1948" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images/12%20May%201948%20Members%20of%20Haganah%2C%20the%20Jewish%20military%20force%2C%20expel%20Palestinians%20from%20Haifa%20Nakba%20%20%28AFP%29.jpg?itok=MjKVZM5c" alt="" width="400" height="250">
</a></p><p>What is the Nakba? Day of catastrophe for Palestinians, explained</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/what-is-nakba-palestine-israel-conflict-explained-1948" target="_blank">Read More »</a>
</p></div>
<p>But many in-person demonstrations went ahead regardless.</p>
<p>Palestinians walked to Damon, a village near Acre on the Mediterranean coast that was destroyed in 1948, <a href="https://wafa.ps/Pages/Details/21844" target="_blank">Wafa </a>reported, raising Palestinian flags and giving speeches near a well that has remained intact.</p>
<p>Demonstrations also<em> </em>took place in Umm az-Zinat, Saffuriya,
al-Bassa, Lajjun and Malul, former Palestinian towns across the country
that now lie beneath Israeli farm settlements.</p>
<p>Palestinians inside Israel raised placards bearing the slogan “Their
independence day is our Nakba day,” and performed cultural activities
such as the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/video/art-palestinian-dabke" target="_blank">storied Dabke dance</a>.</p>
<p>Tarek Shabayteh, whose family are from the town of Hittin, near Nazareth, told <a href="https://www.arab48.com/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9/2021/04/15/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82-%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%88%D9%86" target="_blank">Arab48</a>:
“Hittin has been subjected to harm and vandalism since the Nakba, and
the preservation of Hittin mosque was a great challenge… in addition to
the long struggles to preserve the village cemetery.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ADDPR/" target="_blank">ADRID </a>called
on Palestinians inside Israel to display the name of their families'
destroyed villages and to raise Palestinian flags on rooftops, terraces
and balconies.</p>
<p>"Let everyone know that there is no substitute for the legitimate,
human and legal right of return, which was guaranteed by the
international legal bodies, especially <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/seven-decades-after-resolution-194-why-havent-palestinian-refugees-returned-home" target="_blank">Resolution 194</a>
issued by the United Nations," ADRID said in a statement, "and to prove
to the whole world that the Palestinian people refuse to forget and
give up the right of return."</p>
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