More Nakba thoughts and memories

This is from the Institute for Middle East Understanding. It rounds up a project of interviewing various Palestinians about the expulsion and what it means to Palestinians today and what it should mean to Americans. There are various contributions, this one's from Diana Buttu in response to the question "When you reflect on the 58th anniversary of the Nakba, what comes to mind?"

As a child of a Nakba survivor, I am haunted by the image of thousands of Palestinians fleeing to safety and I am left wondering what the Palestinians were living through that would make them flee their homes for safety. As a resident of Gaza, the daily Israeli shelling and frequent bombing raids have terrorized me. And, while I have often thought of leaving, I remain, as do most Palestinians. In the height of these bombing campaigns, I often think back to the Nakba and convince myself that I can live through it.

A dear Jewish friend of mine once told me that her mother was haunted by the faces of the people who idly watched her get on a truck that shipped her off to a concentration camp. I, too, am often left wondering what the watchers-by were thinking in 1948. More hauntingly, however, I am left wondering whether Israelis ever think that their state, which is supposed to be a haven for Jews, caused the dispossession of so many Palestinians. Have they not become the people who idly watched the Palestinians get on trucks?

And to the question "Why should Americans care about the Nakba, 58 years later?"

The unconditional support provided to Israel, in the face of Israel's continued dispossession of the Palestinians, is the source of much of the discontent towards the United States in the Middle East. Arabs see the double standards in U.S. foreign policy: while the U.S. advocates (and even fights for) the return of Bosnian and East Timorese refugees, Palestinian rights are extinguished by the U.S.; while the U.S. claims that it supports civil rights, the U.S. also supports a state that advocates superior rights for a certain class of people; while the U.S. is opposed to the taking of property without compensation, it supports regime after regime in Israel who make no secret of the fact that they have stolen property in the past and will continue to do so in the future. This unresolved issue will continue to serve as problem for Israel and the U.S. for another 58 years unless a just resolution is achieved.

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