Hello and welcome to the details of ‘We are the people of this land’: On Israel’s Independence Day, Arab Israelis remember the Nakba and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Arab Israelis attend a rally in the northern Israeli town of Megiddo, formerly known as the Palestinian village of Lajjun, on May 1, 2025, for the return of Palestinians who were expelled during the 1948 war that followed the creation of the state of Israel. — AFP pic
DUBAI, May 2 — About 300 Arab Israelis gathered yesterday in the ruins of a village that Palestinians fled during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel, to commemorate what Palestinians call the “Nakba”, or catastrophe.
As Israel celebrated Independence Day yesterday, the demonstrators — men, women, and children — marched through the ruins chanting, “Your independence is our Nakba”.
The place where the demonstrators gathered was previously the village of Al-Lajjun.
The site, once home to thousands of Palestinians, has now been partly taken over by kibbutz Megiddo, an Israeli farming community.
This year’s remembrance unfolded against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, where more than 18 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants have displaced nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million people at least once, according to the United Nations.
Clad in traditional keffiyeh headscarves and garments, marchers sang the Palestinian anthem and shared memories of loss and resilience.
Among them was Ziyad Mahajneh, 82, who had fled the village as a child in 1948.
They “attacked our village with cannons and machine guns,” Mahajneh recalled.
He said when his family fled he was left behind, and it was a neighbour who helped him reunite with them in the nearby town of Umm al-Fahm, now also part of Israel.
“Today, we are forbidden to be here. They ask us, ‘What are you doing here’?” he told AFP, referring to Israelis.
“Al-Lajjun land has now become kibbutzim.”
Memories of displacement echoed through the gathering.
During the 1948 war, around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.
The descendants of some 160,000 Palestinians who managed to remain in what became Israel presently make about 20 percent of its population.
Many of today’s Arab Israelis remain deeply connected to their historic land.
For more than two decades, Arab Israelis have marked Israeli Independence Day with an annual “March of Return” to a depopulated Palestinian village.
This year, however, organisers said heightened restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities —- including limits on attendance and a ban on Palestinian flags —- led them to cancel the central march and hold smaller demonstrations instead.
“They want us to stop from doing even the simplest act: remembering the Nakba,” said Faisal Mahajneh, another displaced resident of Al-Lajjun.
“We are the people of this land, and we will not lose hope” of returning, said Ziyad. — AFP
These were the details of the news ‘We are the people of this land’: On Israel’s Independence Day, Arab Israelis remember the Nakba for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
