Nakba Vigil
dublin |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Sunday May 13, 2007 00:41
by Alana Avery
A vigil commemorating the Nakba of 1948 in Palestine.
A postive IPSC group met at the Spire on May 12th to have a vigil in honour of the Palestinians who were deported from their homes in 1948, upon the establishment of the state of Israel. 2007 marks the 59th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) which is considered the biggest human tragedy in modern history. More than five decades have passed since the Palestinian Nakba erupted in 1948 because of a series of western powers-backed Zionist colonialist plans to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians.
The vigil was met with curiousity but a sympathetic attitude. Many people were willing to take a village name from the IPSC stall and a stick of chalk to write on the pavement between the modern spire and the James Larkin statue. Between 12 and 3, the village names grew several metres. Bunches of flowers were placed on the names and population figures. Each village name resembled a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948 and the figure of people killed.
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8More photos from May 12th.
Photos
Photos
The population figure under the village names represented the number of people displaced from their homes, not necessarily killed. Sorry about that.
The Nakba is "the biggest human tragedy"? Greater than World War I with tens of millions dead? Greater than World War II with 50 million dead and tens of millions of refugees created worldwide? Greater than the Killing Fields of Cambodia with their millions dead and refugees? Greater than the victims of Mao's "Great Leap Forward"? Greater than the 11 million starved to death under Stalin? Greater than the Holocaust, with 6 million Jews dead?
Get a grip!
I'm sure it wasn't meant like that. We're not trying to compete on some sort of world inhumanity scale as you appear to be doing, just trying to remeber communities that were destroyed
"Greater than World War II with 50 million dead and tens of millions of refugees created worldwide? Greater than the 11 million starved to death under Stalin? Greater than the Holocaust, with 6 million Jews dead? "
The 50M number for WWII includes those killed in the labour and concentration camps as well as many of those killed by Stalin. What exactly is your point? Are you suggesting the Jewish victims in the concentration camps were killed twice? Are their deaths twice as significant?
I put it to you that what you are really suggesting is that past Jewish suffering justifies the suffering that they are visiting on the Palestinians.
At least Hitlers regieme only lasted around 10 years opposed by the whole world, not the 60 years of suffering generations of Palestinans have had inflicted on them by an opportunist and expansionist Israel backed by the most influential and richest countries in the world.
The closest comparison of the Palestinians plight is that of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia invaded, pillaged and forcibly settled by the Russians until their empire eventually imploded.
It was not intended as an insult to the many other tragedies that have occured: simply portraying another example of human atrocities. It was about remembering the communities who perished under these particular circumstances.
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.