Popular Conference launches '70th anniversary of the Nakba' events in Beirut

The Popular Conference of Palestinians Abroad held a press conference on Wednesday 14 March at the headquarters of the Lebanese Press Syndicate in Beirut to launch national and popular events on the occasion of the Palestinian “70th anniversary of the Nakba.”

In his speech, Fuad Al-Harakah, representative of the president of the Lebanese Press Syndicate, said that the Lebanese people “stand by all Palestinians inside and outside of Palestine to regain their rights.” He went on, “the people who follow resistance will not give up their rights … The crime cannot be subject to any statute of limitation.”

In the Popular Conference speech, engineer Hisham Abu Mahfouz, Deputy Secretary General of the Conference, pointed out that on 15 May of each year the Palestinian people commemorate the Nakba. Today, the Conference launches a campaign to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nakba under the title “Aidoun,” in partnership with several Palestinian institutions.

Abu Mahfouz said that “despite the Zionist and American attempts to erase the right of return the will of the people  still triumphs.” He stressed that despite the seventy years since the Nakba and all attempts to annihilate the Palestinians “send a clear message to the world assuring that there is no single Palestinian who would like to sell his land.”

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Abu Mahfouz also called on the world to inform decision-makers around the world that the Palestinian people are preparing to return and liberate their country. In his turn, spokesman for the Popular Conference, Ziad Al-Aloul, stated that “the seventieth anniversary of the Nakba is a campaign to unite efforts and show solidarity between the Palestinian institutions in support of Palestine, which is gaining importance in conjunction with Trump’s efforts to transfer his embassy to the city of Jerusalem.”

Al-Aloul added that “through the campaign that will be launched on 31 March, the Conference aims to activate the role of Palestinians abroad, mobilize the potential which advocates the issue and highlight the suffering of refugees in the camps.”

He pointed out that the Conference wanted to send several messages through the campaign, including those addressed to “the occupation that the battle with it is still fierce until the land is recovered, to the world that there is a population who has been ravaged for 70 years, and whose case must remain present in all its aspects, and to the Palestinian people that it is an opportunity to regain the spirit of hope and to assert adherence to full rights and return to Palestine.”

The general coordinator of the International Campaign for the Preservation of Palestinian Identity “Intima,” Yasser Kaddoura, considered that “the Intima” campaign is keen that the 70th anniversary of the Nakba will be kept alive in the memory of the world, and that 70 years of the Nakba is only a long process; the process of return, which began 70 years ago and will soon end with the return to Palestine all Palestine.”

“Seventy years after the Nakba, we must stand firm to declare our commitment to the right, to regroup and mobilize our potential so as to serve the Palestinian national project that preserves the three pillars: return, Jerusalem and refugees,” said Kadhim Ayesh, president of the Jordanian Society for the Return of Refugees.

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“We, in Jordan, are united in our fight against Israel and to build our partnership with civil society to confront the deal of the century … We will have a significant role in reviving the morale among our people in Jordan,” insisted Ayesh.

The head of the Committee to Support the Steadfastness of the People in the Inside at the Popular Conference, Hilmi Al-Bilbisi, said that after seventy years of the Nakba, massacres and forced displacement could not eliminate the Palestinian identity. This is evidenced by the increase in the number of Palestinians in the occupied territory.

He pointed out that the Conference “was keen to support the steadfastness of the Palestinians in the occupied inside to confront the arrogance of the occupation which claims that Palestine is a people without land.” During the press conference, a documentary film about the campaign of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba was presented, and it was concluded by launching the slogan of the campaign on the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, which represents an important event in the history of the Palestinian people.