Jamal Zahalkeh, an Arab member of the Knesset, yesterday participated in a so called ‘march of return’ during Israel’s Independence Day celebrations. According to the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam over ‘10.000 Palestinians over the Green Line’ (Israeli Arabs) participated in the march in the Haifa area.
Zahalkeh was quoted saying that “Israel’s celebrations are a dance on Palestinian blood”. He furthermore said: the march was a declaration of the Palestinians’ rejection of the false Israeli narrative that there was ‘liberation from colonization” in 1948. He said the opposite happened, one colonization was replaced with a settlement, uprooting kind of colonization instead. “British colonization had authority, but Zionist colonization controls the land after stealing it from its owners and chasing them off of it,”
Zahalkeh’s claims about ‘colonization and the stealing of land’ as well as claims in the statement of the Association for the Defense of Rights of the Displaced that were published by Al Ayyam, are refuted by historians Ephraim Karsh in “Palestine Betrayed” and Benny Morris in his book “1948”.
Below is the full translation of the article in Al Ayyam
Thousands of Palestinians from inside the Green Line participated in a “march of return” towards the displaced village of Khubeiza near Haifa, which was organized by the Association for the defense of displaced rights in cooperation with the higher follow up committee for ‘48 Arab affairs.
The march came in tandem with the so-called “Independence Day” celebrations, which is the Nakba day for Palestinians. Palestinian flags and the names of displaced and destroyed villages were raised under the slogan: “their independence is our Nakba”.
Over 10,000 Palestinians participated in the march representing all political factions inside the Green Line along with associations and civil society organizations. A statement issued by the defense of rights of the displaced association, over 530 Palestinian villages were destroyed or emptied. The statement said the right of return is a sacred and inalienable right and is a personal and collective right that does not diminish with time.
According to Arab MK Jamal Zahalkeh during the march: “Israel’s celebrations are a dance on Palestinian blood.”
He said the march was a declaration of the Palestinians’ rejection of the false Israeli narrative that there was ‘liberation from colonization” in 1948. He said the opposite happened, one colonization was replaced with a settlement, uprooting kind of colonization instead. “British colonization had authority, but Zionist colonization controls the land after stealing it from its owners and chasing them off of it,” he said. (Al Ayyam)
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