Today, Tuesday, May 15, is the 59th anniversary of the day Israel was established. For the Palestinians, this day is Nakba (“Catastrophe”) Day. That is, the “catastrophe” is not Israel’s conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in June 1967, nor even its victory in the (1948-1949) Independence War and the emergence of the Palestinian-refugee issue, but the creation of Israel itself on May 15, 1948.
That event remains, for the Palestinians, the quintessential catastrophe despite two facts. First of all, according to the UN Partition Plan (November 29, 1947), the Israel that was supposed to arise on that day would have been a tiny, chopped-up country consisting of a strip of land along the Mediterranean coast, the eastern Galilee, and the Negev desert, with Jerusalem an international city. Second, according to that plan the rest of the land would have been the proverbial Palestinian state—which the Palestinians (along with the rest of the Arab world), not for the first time or the last time, rejected hands-down, preferring instead to join five Arab armies in an attempt to wipe out the nascent Israel.
... let's see if the Bush Administration acknowledges this day!
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