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.