On Monday, Israeli military killed 61 unarmed Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 2,700 more. The victims of the human rights violation had gathered in protest of the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. It was the bloodiest day since the beginning of the six-week campaign, which launched on March 30 at the Gaza Strip. The series of nonviolent protests called “The Great March of Return” by Palestinian organizers, demanded for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be allowed to return to their homeland, what is now Israel. Among the death toll was an eight-month old baby girl asphyxiated by tear gas dropped from drones onto the protesters. Monday’s protest also marked the 70th anniversary of the Nakba commemorated to the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee or were expelled from their homes.
The Creation of Israel and Nakba
The “Nakba”, which is Arabic for catastrophe, took place in 1948. During this time, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes and placed in refugee camps in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and other neighboring countries. The horrors of the Nakba did not end in 1948 but continues to affect millions of Palestinians who remain stateless.
Before the Nakba, historically, Palestine was mostly a country of Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and a small number of Jews. Attempting to flee the ongoing persecution of Jews in Europe at the time, Zionists saw Palestine as a favorable location for a Jewish homeland.
With the start of World War 1, Britain pledged support to the Zionist movement in Palestine and promised the country would be a new Jewish homeland. This declaration came in a formal letter known as the Balfour Declaration. At the end of World War 1 and with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Britain occupied Palestine and provided military support, allowing European Jews to emigrate and acquire Palestinian land. Despite large organized demonstrations by the Palestinian people, the Jewish migration into Palestine went on for decades.
In 1936, the Palestinians fought against Britain and Zionists occupation. During the next three years of the revolution, thousands of Palestinians were killed along with hundreds of British and Zionists. The British ended the Palestinian revolution but they also began to limit Jewish migration into Palestine. This placed a wedge between the British and Jews who had fought alongside the British during the Palestinian uprising. This led them to create their own forces and Zionists militia began bombing attacks on the Palestinians as well as the British.
By 1947, the British declared they were ending their mandate of Palestine. They transferred their findings of Palestine onto the United Nations, which suggested creating a separate Jewish and Arab state. As the British left the country the new heavily armed Jewish population began taking over, and so began the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Laying siege to major cities and hundreds of villages, forcing Palestinians out.
The British officially ended their mandate on May 14, 1948 and left their tanks and weapons to the newly created state of Israel. From the original occupation by the British in 1917 until they left in 1948, it is estimated that the Jewish population had multiplied ten times. Although Palestine outnumbered the Jewish population and they had the support of other Arab nations, the Israelis had foreign military, political and financial support. They were a well-armed and dedicated force of which the Palestinians were no match for. By April of 1949 more than 500 villages and numerous cities were captured by the Israelis. More than 13,000 Palestinians were killed. Presently, Israel occupies the entirety of historical Palestine.