Dr. Wajeeh Abu Zarifeh
The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba was commemorated by the Palestinians and the free people of the world in May 2023. In 1948, Zionist gangs managed to destroy 531 Palestinian cities and villages, committed approximately 71 bloody massacres; wiping out 5 thousand Palestinians, and displaced a million citizens to refuge camps inside and outside Palestine. Therefore, the number of Palestinian refugees has reached 7 million; the majority of them are living in 58 UNRWA camps and places of refuge, under inhuman conditions.
Seventy-five years have passed. Yet, the repercussions and implications of the Nakba are still present as a result of Israel's insistence on imposing the legitimacy of de-facto instead of the international legitimacy.
The United Nations and the components of the international community have not committed to applying the resolutions of international legitimacy, and imposing the sanctions enacted by the international law and the Charter of the United Nations on Israel. This thus encouraged Israel to go further than just turning its back to the international community and its organizations. It rather tends to devour and seize lands to create illegal settlements instead and expand the existing ones to undercut the political settlement. In addition, it practices organized terrorist acts against the Palestinian people, such as killing, assassination, arrest, blockade, destruction of houses, and bulldozing of farms. The last of these racist acts was the recent Israeli aggression on Gaza weeks ago, which led to the martyrdom of 33 Palestinians; increasing the number of martyrs killed since the beginning of the last year to 150.
Israel is a rouge state that rejects to apply the UN resolutions and deny Palestinians rights, and disregards the international law. Therefore, it should be held accountable.
The Israeli occupation government diligently plans to Judaize the City of Al-Quds, and change its landmarks. It aims to impose the policy of fait accompli, especially in Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, divide it temporally and spatially, enforce the reality of a Jewish-nation state that deprives Palestinians from their right to self-determination and return. Additionally, it executes the actual annexation of Palestinian lands and the systematic displacement of Palestinians through racist resolutions and policies that disregard the international law and legitimacy resolutions. It also seeks to liquidate the Palestinian cause, by enforcing the Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, separating it from Al-Quds and Gaza, extending the legal jurisdiction of a number of Israeli ministries to the settlements, and building thousands of colonial units. This comes in part of additional steps seeking to consolidate the apartheid regime and deprive Palestinian from their right to freedom and self-determination.
The upsurge in this aggressive policy wouldn't have continued in case Israel was classified as an above-the-law state. Israel is backed by support and political coverage from the western world and the American administration, which sought not only to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy, but also to prevent any decision to be taken in the international organizations against the Israeli aggressive policies and practices through the illegal use of Veto. It was also allowed to seize Palestinian lands and undermine any possible political solutions.
The international community is asked to take responsibility of maintaining the Palestinian rights endorsed by the international legitimacy. Moreover, it shall implement the international resolutions using the power of international law, which Israel must be subject to, provide the Palestinians with international protection, lift the historical injustice inflicted on them, and end their humanitarian misery flaming for more than 75 years. UNRWA, also, must be widely supported by the international organizations to stop the measures of the rightest Israeli government to impose its sovereignty over the West Bank and Al-Quds.
The disregard of Israel's policies and standings that violate the international legitimacy and human rights conventions will either trigger chaos in the region or threaten the international security and peace.
In the 75th anniversary of Nakba, Palestinians reaffirm that the right of return is an inherent, historical and sacred right that does not expire with time or occupation. It is also an individual and collective right, linked to the right to self-determination and protected by the international law and the resolutions of the international legitimacy. Our people thus await the awakening of global conscience to resolve their issue, which has become the oldest and largest cause known to the world and the United Nations. After seventy-five years, they aspire to put an end to their suffering, enjoy a dignified life and live in peace and stability.
Chasing freedom and independence, Palestinians continue their national struggle. As well, they pursue just peace, based on international legitimacy resolutions in a way that would guarantee the Israeli withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967, including Al-Quds. The establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Al-Quds as its capital, and the protection of Palestinians' rights to return to their homeland from which they were displaced, according to Resolution No. 194, are also among the aspirations of Palestinians.
The just peace that we look for cannot be achieved without serious international efforts to counter the policies of the Israeli occupation and force it to admit the resolutions of the international legitimacy, at least.