New York Palestinians remember Al-Nakba

WW photo: Anne Pruden

Chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” rang through the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, May 14. Hundreds of Palestinian people and their supporters marked the 58th anniversary of al-Nakba—the Catastrophe—the U.S.-backed creation of the racist state of Israel and the expulsion of nearly 1 million Palestinians from their land.

Bay Ridge is home to New York City’s biggest Arab community. The march and rally were organized by Al Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Signs displayed in Leif Eriksen Park, where the rally began, bore the names of some of the 418 Palestinian Arab villages wiped off the map in 1948.

The march, which went nearly 50 blocks, was led by young people carrying a banner saying “We have the right to return to our homes.” The marchers expressed defiance against both the U.S.-financed Israeli occupation of their country and the racist persecution their community has suffered under the Bush regime’s “war on terror.”

One marcher said, “Now I know that if anything happens, my people are with me.”

Rama Kased, co-chair of Al Awda-New York, said: “This event reenergized and empowered our community and brought us back onto the streets we have been afraid to march on for far too long. It shows we will never forget and our spirit will not be broken. We will struggle until the Israeli apartheid state goes the way of apartheid in South Africa and our people are free.”

—Bill Cecil