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10,000 Arab Israelis on Tuesday rallied in northern Israel to demand the right to return for all Palestinian refugees. The rally took place in the village Lavi, built on the wreckage of the Palestinian village Lubya, which was, until 1948, home to 2,726 Palestinians. During the Arab Israeli conflict in 1948 about 400-500 Palestinian villages were depopulated, destroyed, occupied and renamed by Israeli forces.
The event was organized by groups, which demand the right for the Palestinians expelled in 1948 to return to Israel. The event used the slogan “Your ‘independence’ day is our ‘Nakba’”, Nakba being the Arabic word for catastrophe. Demonstrators, waving Palestinian flags, read out the names of the 530 Palestinian villages emptied 66 years ago, and observed a minute of silence in their memory.
Spokeswoman for the Israeli police Luba Samri said, “A demonstration organized by Israeli Arab associations gathered about 10,000 people and two youths were arrested for violence against the police”. Israeli Arab Member of Parliament Mohammad Barakei said “There will be no peace, no stability and no reconciliation without the refugees’ right of return”.
Palestinians mark May 15 as Nakba day; however, Arab Israelis hold demonstrations on Israel’s Independence Day, which this year fell on Tuesday.
Over 760,000 estimated Palestinians, extrapolated to 4.8 million today if their descendants are included, were either driven away or were forced to flee their houses in 1948. About 160,000 Palestinians, since known as Arab Israelis, had stayed behind, and today make up 20% of the Israeli population, numbering at 1.3 million. Most of the original inhabitants of Lubya had settled in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus.
The police spokeswoman added that in east Jerusalem, police dispersed crowds at a demonstration organised by Jewish extremists, who were marching through the Old City while chanting anti-Arab slogans. Two of the demonstrators who attempted to pass through the police checkpoint were arrested, she added.
