Palestinian events for Nakba Day deny refugees resettlement, hold convoys of “vehicles of return”
(AFP) “The Train of Return in Bethlehem” Text on first train carriage: “There is no statute of limitation to our right of return” | “The buses of return in Ramallah” |
(AFP): A mass procession in Nablus on Nakba Day” |
Headline: “On Nakba Day: Train, ship, and buses for the return”
“The [Palestinian] residents of various places in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and refugee camps in the Diaspora marked the 68th anniversary of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) yesterday, by sounding a siren for 68 seconds, and in mass processions…
In Gaza a mass procession was organized. It began at the statue of the anonymous soldier and proceeded in the direction of the UN headquarters. Chairman of the National Committee to Mark the 68th Anniversary of the Nakba and PLO Executive Committee member Zakaria Al-Agha said in a speech he gave in the name of the committee: ‘This painful memory and the bitter reality that our people experienced still continue through the stages of history, but at the same time, they strengthen our people and its resolve on this land, so that the refugee cause will continue to burn, and consume with its righteous flames the attempts to [permanently] settle [the refugees in foreign lands], and to expel [them], and all the plans to eradicate [the refugees’ cause].’
In the cities of Ramallah, El-Bireh, and Betunia, convoys of ‘vehicles of return’ - old buses, trucks, and cars that were in the Palestinians’ possession before the Nakba of 1948 and that transported the uprooted refugees from their land - set out yesterday [May 15, 2016]. Black flags and keys of return waved over the black buses, carrying Palestinian refugees who experienced the Nakba together with the possessions they took [with them] then from their homes and villages.”