50 Years since the Naksa

50 Years since the Naksa

June 9, 2017

On June 5^th Palestinians commemorate the Naksa, day of setback, to mark the displacement of people at the end of the Six-Day War in 1967 and the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is the second displacement Palestinians have experienced, the first happened in 1948 in the violent creation of the state of Israel and is commemorated by Palestinians as Al Nakba, the catastrophe, on May 15^th each year.

As 2017 marks the 50^th year of occupation, there are many articles, reports and books that have been published on this topic. Below is a selection of these resources, check back for further additions during the year.

Faith-based focus:

CFOS has gathered several resources as part of a call for Prayer to Mark 50 Years of Occupation
Sabeel Jerusalem has released a statement by board chair Rev. Naim Ateek, Half a Century of Occupation – What Next?
The World Council of Churches held a Pentecost prayer service in Jerusalem calling for prayers for the people of the Holy Land.
Resources available at: Pentecost is Time to Pray for Unity and Just Peace.
The WCC has released a Statement on 50 Years of Occupation, praying for new paths to peace and calling for churches around the world to renew their commitment to speaking and acting in support of justice and peace in Palestine and Israel.
For Passover, the new Jewish peace group Save Israel Stop the Occupation released The Jubilee Haggadah, which proclaims liberty throughout the land for all of its inhabitants.
The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine have released an open letter to the WCC calling for costly solidarity from their partners around the world and a renewed commitment to implement the calls to action in the Kairos Palestine document.

Canadian focus:

Independent Jewish Voices Canada’s statement Registered Canadian Charity Violates International Law with Regards to Israel’s 50-Year-Long Military Occupation calls on the Canadian government to examine the role the Jewish National Fund of Canada has had in entrenching the occupation.
From The Canadian Jewish News, in Canada’s 150 and 50 Years of Israel’s Occupation Need Sober Reflection, Mira Sucharov describes how these anniversary years provide a fresh opportunity for breaking free from settler-colonial dynamics.

Other Resources

Visualizing Palestine has A History of Occupation graphic which depicts the lands of Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria that Israel has occupied at various times.
The June issue of This Week in Palestine has a focus on the 50 Years of Occupation. Samia Khoury describes how organizations like the YWCA persisted in promoting Palestinian culture in her article Sumud and Culture.
The New York Times has a review of books being released this year about Six-Day War or the 50 years of Israeli occupation. Maclean’s has further information on one of these books, Kingdom of Olives and Ash.
The Palestine – Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture has released Volume 22 Issue 2&3 as Time for Justice and Peace: 100 Years of Conflict, 50 Years of Occupation. Izhak Schnell in his article The Impact of Occupation on Israeli Democracy describes five ways Israeli democracy has deteriorated.
Jeremy Hammond refutes the myth that Israel was not the aggressor in 1967 in his Foreign Policy Journal article: Who Started the Six-Day War of June 1976?
The unquestioning support Israel has received from the US has made the occupation possible as explained by Rashid Khalidi in his article The Israeli-American Hammer-Lock on Palestine in The Nation.
Save Israel, Stop the Occupation (SISO) is a newly formed Jewish peace organization with a focus on the economic cost of the occupation and raising awareness about other intractable conflicts that have ended. SISO is described by Tamara Zieve in The Jerusalem Post article, Pro-Peace Group Leverages Six Day War Anniversary for Global Jewish Action.
In a 2016 article with a focus on the Nakba, Vacy Vlazna from Aljazeera describes the work of Salman Abu Sitta in Nakba: The Man Reconstructing Palestine’s Lost Villages.