Last week on May 15, the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the disaster that befell Palestinians when Israel was founded Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) held a demonstration at the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa. This was followed by another on Parliament Hill on May 18. Some 150 people turned out on Parliament Hill to show support for Palestine, to hear speakers, and to join in chants. Halimah Sallam was one of those taking part. “I come from a refugee camp in Jordan," she said. “I was born in the West Bank. My parents fled with us to Jordan in fear because of the Qibya massacre. Our village was nearby." Another Palestinian, Dr. Thaer Elrefai, was a child in 1948 when his family fled to Lebanon. In 1982, Israel engaged in a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon. Some of their bombs destroyed his family home. “We were refugees again," he commented. “Palestinians are still living in refugee camps—65 years later." I asked Peter Lawson, a CJPME activist, about the importance of commemorations such as this. “Very few Canadians are aware of the Nakba," he said. “We need to know what happened as a start for resolution of the problem." An Ottawa CJPME leader, Grafton Ross, spoke of the 700,000 Palestinians driven from their homes by the Nakba. “We are here," he said, “to protest the continuing injustice of the occupation, oppression, statelessness, and exile." “65 years ago," he continued, “Palestinians owned 94% of their land. Today, Palestinians have less than 12% of their land and it is disconnected and occupied. Today, nearly 600,000 Israelis have settled in illegal colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Today, an illegal wall snakes through the occupied territories, severing Palestinians from their lands, schools, hospitals, and places of work—an ugly scar on the land that can be seen from outer space. Today, over 5,000,000 Palestinian refugees—one-third of them languishing in camps under appalling conditions—await their United Nations-guaranteed right to return peacefully to their homes." CJPME also condemns the ongoing seizure of Palestinian property, the eviction of Palestinian homes to house Jews, and the widespread demolition of Palestinian homes. A Jewish perspective was provided by Tyler Levitan, the Campaign Coordinator for Independent Jewish Voices, who told the crowd about the brainwashing that Jews have experienced.
