Press Releases
For Immediate Release
| No. (E/15/06) |
15 June 2006 |
The spring issue of al Majdal is dedicated to the Palestinian Nakba (the catastrophe) as an ongoing event. As Palestinians commemorated in May 2006 the 58th anniversary of the Nakba of 1948, Israel's rapid colonization of remaining Palestinian land combined with the political and economic sanctions imposed by Israel and western governments against the elected Palestinian Authority triggered an unprecented political and humanitarian crisis in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Memories of the Palestinian Nakba of 1948 thus blended with the distruction, dispossession and displacement of today.
Reports and analysis in this issue show how commemorations of the Nakba bind together Palestinians in Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and in forced exile and serve to strengthen the collective consciousness and political will of a people determined to continue the struggle from generation to generation.
Other authors raise the need to understand the Nakba of 1948 as a phenomenon of ethnic cleansing, reflect on the importance of the year 1948 for both South Africans and the Palestinian people as the year in which British colonialism created the conditions for the birth of Apartheid South Africa and Apartheid Israel, and examine the role of the Church in (de)constructing apartheid and colonization in Palestine.
Additional aspects of the 'ongoing Nakba' are addressed by a discussion of the role of humanitarianism which has become the primary manifestation of international political will as donor states condition aid to Palestinians on Palestinian acquiescence to conditions that Israel itself has yet to fully accept, and by reports of ongoing forced displacement of Palestinians in the Naqab (Negev), Iraq and in Europe as a result of Israel's discriminatory policies and lack of effective protection by host states and the international community.
General articles include analysis of the ideological positions of Israeli political parties based on their campaigns for the recent parliamentary elections, and a report about the current situation of Bhutanese refugees after 15 years in exile.
An update of recent developments in the global civil society campaign for boycott, devistmend and sanctions against Israel (BDS) and a statement to BADIL from the Green Party USA commemorating the 58th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba are included in the document section.
A PDF version of al-Majdal, issue 29, is available at: http://www.badil.org/al-Majdal/al-Majdal.htm
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