Friday, May 15, marks "Nakba Day" for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip who plan to hold rallies, marches, and demonstrations in protest of the creation of the Jewish state dating back to May 1948. Police are on hand in expectation of violence for what Palestinian Arab leaders call the "Day of Catastrophe."
Palestinians will protest against what they consider their own displacement as refugees after Israel's war of independence. They are driven to "reclaim" territory by flooding into Israel in an effort to end the Jewish state, propagated by leadership who continually reject the existence of Israel.
This is also the expectation of how many in the media will report on these demonstrations. The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has several rebuttals to the mainstream media to counter their narrative.
According to a CAMERA release, it is estimated that 800,000 Jews were also displaced during and after Israel's war for independence -- amounting to at least the same, if not greater, number of Palestinians who claim refugee status. Many Palestinians they have a "right of return" to Israel based on a UN resolution passed in 1948, but their interpretation is reported as having no weight of international law, not to mention the many violations made against the resolution by Palestinian Arab leadership.
PA leadership has demonstrated resistance over and over again to efforts from Israeli leaders offering them resolutions to the conflict, even statehood. Yet peace cannot be achieved. Along with the belief that Israel's right to exist is ignored, and the controlling body of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, declaring that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam abolishes it," efforts to move forward are seemingly impossible.
Peace in the region would begin if Palestine accepted the Jewish state -- something leadership finds unreasonable, preferring to issue maps to the public dubbing Israel as "Palestine" -- thus leaving no possibility for a two-state solution.
CAMERA points to Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh for the last word on the protests:
By sponsoring, funding and encouraging Palestinians to take to the streets to "mourn" the establishment of Israel and remain committed to the "right of return," Abbas and his officials in Ramallah are not being honest with their people. They are undoubtedly afraid of telling their people that Israel would never allow millions of Palestinians into its borders. They are even more afraid of admitting to the refugees that Arab and Palestinian leaders have been lying to them since 1948 by asking them to stay in their camps because one day they will return to non-existent villages and homes.
Once again, the PA leaders will have only themselves to blame for having radicalized their people over the years to a point where Palestinians consider any concessions to Israel as a "crime of high treason."
Getty Image from 2014 Chicago rally
