Bulletin N° 35 mai 2023 If it appears more and more clearly that the policy of the State of Israel is a policy of complete colonization of Palestine against the backdrop of an apartheid regime relegating the Palestinian populations to a state of lawlessness and submission, the fact remains that this policy is inscribed from the start in the conception and nature of this state.
Day after day, the news from Palestine shows an acceleration of the process of colonization and expropriation of the Palestinian people. Witness the headlines of the Palestinian press on this day of May 9, headlines reported by the WAFA news agency: "Palestinian daily newspapers: 'Al-Quds', 'Al-Hayat Al-Jadida' and 'Al-Ayam' brought to light the campaign of arrests in the West Bank, the violation of settlers against farmers in the villages of Qaryut and Jalud." Added to this daily violence are the massacres in Gaza denounced by Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh: "[massacres] in which 13 Palestinians were martyred, including women, children, the elderly and more than 20 injured. " adding:"The aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is organized state terrorism, and an attempt to export the internal crisis of the Israeli government." .
He considered that the aggression against the Gaza Strip is an extension of the catastrophe that struck the Palestinian people in 1948, the so-called al Nakba. This disaster was described by Constantin Zureiq, a Syrian intellectual, in an essay titled Ma'an Al Nakba (The Meaning of the Catastrophe). He notes that this is not a: "passing calamity nor a simple crisis, but a catastrophe (Nakba) in every sense of the word, the worst that has happened to the Arabs in their long history rich in dramas .”
In an article in 2011,the Lebanese writer Elias Khoury* , fellow traveler of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has offered a critical rereading of Constantin Zureiq's founding work. He asserts: "What he did not understand at the time was that the Nakba is not an event but a process" , focusing on Israeli Arabs, the descendants of Palestinians who have no were not expelled in 1948, he added: "The land confiscations never stopped. We are still living in the era of the Nakba”. This brief reminder of an event which, in 1948, expropriated 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and their lands shows to what extent the colonial project is inscribed in the very conception of the State of Israel. It should be noted that the support of the imperialist countries, the United States in the lead, yet so prolific on human rights, has never been lacking in Israel. At best recommending simple restraint. Better still, and this is the case today in France, those who condemn colonization and apartheid are accused of anti-Semitism and thus come within the scope of the law. For our part, we support the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for the right to a state and the return of refugees.
*The children of the Ghetto: my name is Adam (Actes Sud, 2018)