[act-ma] TODAY 5pm - PROTEST Israeli killings at Gaza border fence - Palestinian Nakba Commemoration

[Cole Harrison]

 Palestinian Nakba Commemoration 2018
Tuesday, May 15 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm ~ Park Street Station, Boston
[image: Nakba Exhibit at MIT, April 2018. Skip Schiel photo]

*POSTPONED from May 12 due to rain*

*Palestinians and their allies are marking 70 years of Nakba, or the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine since 1948, with an exhibit and solemn procession
showcasing the nature of Israel’s ongoing crimes -- including 52 killed and
2,700 injured yesterday by Israeli gunfire at the border fence.*
We will meet at Park Street and form an organized line along the sidewalk
bordering the Common, holding various banners, posters and exhibit pieces.

*PLEASE COME PREPARED TO HOLD SIGNS AND BANNERS–we will have lots!*

Palestinians and their allies in Boston are marking the 70th commemoration
of the Nakba – the catastrophic Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In
1948, almost a million Palestinians were violently dispossessed of their
homes and land by Zionist settler colonialists. The emerging Israeli state
stripped Palestinians of their possessions and livelihood. Many
Palestinians were expelled or fled to neighboring areas and have struggled
to survive and return ever since. Those who managed to stay in their homes
were subjected to Israeli rule and treated as second-class citizens.

Seventy years later, the Nakba continues. Palestinians in Gaza live in the
world’s largest open-air prison without sufficient access to water,
healthcare, electricity, movement, and work. Those in the West Bank
confront highly-oppressive Israeli occupying forces and hostile settler
populations daily. Palestinians internally and externally displaced
continue to struggle with life in refugee camps and have been violently
targeted and uprooted again. Palestinians in Jerusalem have continued to
experience “legalized cleansing” – they have no legal status and are under
constant threat of home demolition; those living inside 1948 borders with
Israeli citizenship are treated as less than second-class citizens. Bedouin
Palestinians are under constant threat of being uprooted; and those in the
diaspora have often struggled to return home and to raise their voices
under fear of reprisal.

As Israelis celebrate, for the seventieth time, the anniversary of their
“independence” from their settler colonial sponsor, Palestinians mark their
forced expulsion and loss of their livelihood and homeland.

For example, recent events in Gaza only serve to emphasize the ongoing
cleansing and conquest of Palestine. In Gaza, the Great March of Return, a
peaceful encampment and weekly protests along the border with Israel, has
been met with Israeli snipers firing live ammunition, rubber bullets and
gas at unarmed protesters, journalists and children and has resulted in the
death of over 40 Gazans and injuries to hundreds more. Rising tensions in
the West Bank due to heightened Israel military pressure on places like
Nabi Saleh – the home of Ahed Tamimi – further exemplifies Israel’s ongoing
cleansing, apartheid, and oppression.

The undersigned groups have thus united and organized “Remembering and
Resisting the 70 years of Ongoing Nakba” to draw the attention of
Bostonians to the Palestinian experience of the Nakba. The exhibit will be
displayed on Saturday, May 12 at Copley Square beginning at 11:30 AM. This
will be followed by a Solemn Procession to commemorate the March of Return
at 12:30 through Downtown Crossing and at a Speak-Out at Park Street
Station at 1:00 PM. Our goal is to draw attention to the many and varied
ways in which Palestinians have encountered and continue to resist the
ongoing Nakba, and the ways in which Israel has ensured its legacy for
generations.

Photo credit: Palestine Poster Project

Organized by: Alliance for Water Justice, Grassroots International, Jewish
Voice for Peace – Boston, Massachusetts Peace Action, Palestinian Community
in Boston, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East – MA
Chapter, United for Justice with Peace

Endorsed by: 1for3.org
<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2F1for3.org%2F&h=ATNMkz-2S9oj-gJK7_cWrt5zOPSay5fID4lWcs6O0PSBojV9P4RAoCrGxHQ7F3kdj_ocpJ87a6nhzvUgTedqRH1p1x6jvqkq6eNHesks8Q5_yRb_SGk>,
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Arabic Hour, BLM Boston,
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Cambridge to Bethlehem People to
People Project, Cosecha, Dorchester People for Peace, Faculty & Staff for
Justice in Palestine, Green Mountain Solidarity with Palestine, Maine
Voices for Palestinian Rights, Metrowest Peace Action, Middle East
Education Group at First Parish in Cambridge, National Lawyers Guild-MA,
New Hampshire Palestine Education Network, North Shore Coalition for Peace
and Justice, Palestina Cafe in the Berkshires, Palestine Advocacy Project,
Project Voice, The American Friends of the Palestinian House of Friendship,
The Network La Red, Tree of Life, Watertown Citizens for Peace and Justice,
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) – Boston Branch,
Committee for Peace and Human Rights, Arlington United for Justice with
Peace, Palestinian House of New England, Network of Arab American
Professionals (NAAP-Boston), ANSWER Coalition, International Socialist
Organization, Boston-Wide Students for Justice in Palestine, Boston
University Students for Justice in Palestine, Harvard Law School Justice
for Palestine, Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee, Reclaim
Harvard Law School, Palestine at MIT, Vermonters for Justice in Palestine


-- 
*"Not one step back"*

Cole Harrison
Executive Director
Massachusetts Peace Action - the Commonwealth's largest grassroots peace
organization
11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169 w
617-466-9274 m
www.masspeaceaction.org
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