Editorial
Independence and Nakba are two sides of one coin. The 1948 war
marks the event which the Israelis celebrate as the creation of
their state, and which the Palestinians commemorate as the loss of
their homeland, Palestine.
For centuries, Arabs and Jews lived in Palestine in peace and
harmony as one people, until the establishment of the Zionist
movement towards the end of the 19th century and the arrival of the
first waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine. That was the
beginning of the friction and confrontations between the two sides.
The Palestinians saw in the Jewish immigration a threat to their
existence and national aspirations for a state. No one had the
right to expect the Palestinians to become Zionists and welcome the
incoming waves of Jewish immigrants. Palestine was not "a land
without a people for a people without a land."
Britain's role in creating the problem was clear. The Balfour
Declaration in1917 switched on a red light. It aroused the fears,
frustration
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