Palestinian leaders distort the significance of the Nakba, with serious consequences

Speaking about the Nakba requires more than a methodical approach that is confined to history. In a statement released on the eve of the annual commemoration, Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) secretary general Saeb Erekat demanded both an apology from Israel, as well as access to the 1948 archives. “This,” he said, “would show their own nation the truth of what was done to our people, including its ethnic cleansing policies and the policy of shooting to kill Palestinians who attempted to return home.”

According to Wafa news agency, Erekat also declared the Nakba as being “symbolised in our exile and the systematic denial of our rights.” While all of these premises are true, they also conceal the obvious. Palestinian leaders have emulated Israel and the international community in ensuring that there is substantial differentiation between the original ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in and around 1948 and the methods perfected by Israel in the current political climate which are just as treacherous, yet only elicit mild condemnation and, bizarrely, overt acquiescence and even collaboration.

In addition, the Palestinian Authority in particular has proved itself unequivocally partial to the repression of Palestinian resistance. This week, PA security forces commemorated the Nakba by assaulting Palestinian activists demonstrating in solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails. The action was defended by a PA security official quoted by Ma’an news agency, who claimed that the activists blocking of the road “required immediate intervention by security forces.” The fact is that the 70,000+ PA security personnel exist solely to protect the occupation and the occupiers, not the people of Palestine.

Read: The Nakba Explained

Erekat’s request for archive access, therefore, is imbued with dissonance. As regards historical memory, continued insistence will undoubtedly affirm the Palestinian right to remembrance, as well as expose facts about the premeditated terror by Zionist militias — described by some commentators as “Jewish terrorists” — to erase both Palestine and the Palestinians. While the request might be seen to bear more weight coming from a senior official, it is clear that the reversal of roles resulting from the Palestinian leadership’s subjugation to Israel will not translate into action. However, it is simply not enough to refer to exile and symbolism as a distant and cloistered phenomenon; affirming Israel’s current and ongoing violations as an extension of the Nakba is equally important. Perhaps more so.

#NakbaDay

Through its cycle of human rights violations, Israel has ensured that the Nakba is not a one-off historical event that took place around the creation of the Zionist state on occupied Palestinian land in 1948. The tactics may have changed – there is permanent and persistent colony-settlement expansion, settler violence, forced displacement, appropriation of resources and the silencing of Palestinian resistance — but the objective is the same; the total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. All of this is interspersed with frequent outbursts in which Israeli security forces and Jewish settlers murder Palestinian civilians with apparent impunity. It is only the normalisation of such violence, as well as the acceptance of Israel’s colonial presence in Palestine, by the international community that has facilitated the current separation of the 1948 atrocities from those of the present day.

Read: Remembering the Nakba

Furthermore, Palestinian leaders have traded their dignity for compromise and reneged on their vows to struggle against oblivion in order to support the occupation authorities which are intent on Palestine’s eradication. Hence, their perpetual avoidance of discussions about the Nakba as both a historic event and an ongoing reality, in favour of the more politically convenient two-state “solution”. Having substituted their roles as political representatives with those of collaborators, their actions indicate a willingness to sever ties with history and the Palestinian people, thus facilitating further colonial conquest by Israel and, by choice, dissociating from the Nakba with severe consequences for Palestine and the Palestinians.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.