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16-05-2022
JERUSALEM/ GAZA: On May 15, 1948, Israel was established as a Jewish-majority state at the expense of the forced expulsion of about 750,000 Palestinians.
The day has subsequently been commemorated annually as Nakba Day.
The word “Nakba” means “catastrophe” in Arabic, and refers to the systematic ethnic cleansing of two-thirds of the Palestinian population at the time by Zionist paramilitaries during 1947-1949 and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society.
Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.
This year marks 74 years of Al-Nakba, or the Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland. The anniversary comes at a time where many are angered by the killing of prominent Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Sirens sound for 74 seconds marking Nakba Day in Ramallah
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, sirens went off for 74 seconds, marking the 74th anniversary of the Nakba.
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said the day is especially poignant for the six million Palestinian refugees within the country and outside of it.
“There’s been a lot of emphasis on the right of return,” she said, speaking from Ramallah. “Looking at the political situation, not only are Palestinians not able to return back to their lands, they are struggling to stay on the lands that they are currently in.”
Israeli soldier who shot Shireen Abu Akleh interrogated: Haaretz
Israeli daily Haaretz said that the soldier accused of killing Abu Akleh has been interrogated, and was sitting in an army vehicle 190 metres away from the journalist.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, Haaretz said the soldier, despite his rifle having a telescopic lens, did not see Abu Akleh.
“Reading between the lines, it is very much a step back from the initial assessment from the army and the establishment here, who said potentially it would have been a Palestinian gunman,” said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker.
“Our colleagues who were on the ground with Shireen were extremely clear that they believed it was the army,” she continued, speaking from occupied East Jerusalem. “It now seems to be indicating that the Israelis are now slowly starting to say it looks like it may have been one of their soldiers who fired the fatal shot.
Blinken offers support to family of slain Palestinian journalist
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the family of slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after criticising Israel’s use of force at her funeral.
Blinken offered “deep condolences” in a phone call with family members of Shireen Abu Akleh, a State Department official said.
The top US diplomat “noted Abu Akleh’s journalistic body of work and the importance of a free and independent press”, the official said on customary condition of anonymity.
Blinken offered the support of US diplomats in Jerusalem to the family of Abu Akleh, who also held US citizenship.
Abu Akleh, a prominent journalist across the Arab world, held US citizenship. She was killed last Wednesday by an Israeli sniper while covering an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. (Al Jazeera)
