TOMORROW is Nakba Day, when Palestinians and friends commemorate the catastrophe (nakba is the Arabic word) that was a consequence of the founding of Israel in 1948 and which continues today.
It is shameful and testament to the inhumanity of humankind that there is still no nation for Palestinians. Australia has contributed to the inhumanity and today lauds Israel while ignoring the fact generations of Palestinians are born and die stateless.
In Israel there are civilised, humane people and institutions who want to accord Palestinians justice. They remind us the politics of division sown by the Israeli Government and President Donald Trump is cruel.
In 1948 David Ben-Gurion, a powerful leader in the post-war Jewish world, declared the independent state of Israel. For the Palestinians who called this land their home the process of loss began. They became refugees.
One the most powerful accounts, written in 2015 on the London Review of Books blog, of how the Nakba came about comes from former Israeli politician and peace activist Uri Avnery who served three terms in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, and is the founder of the political group, Gush Shalom, which means Peace Bloc.
Read the article by Greg Barns in The Mercury.
[Refer to this other recent piece by Barns about the Gaza border protests.]