May 15, 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the Nakba or commemoration of the displacement of Palestinians from what is now Israel. Of course, for Israelis the date signifies the 60th anniversary of their country's independence. And for bloggers, May 15 signifies Palestine Day.
za3tar, the organizer of the initiative, explained the purpose in a post saying:
Dear all,
May 15th of this year is the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba –which marked the beginning of the modern age Palestinian plight and suffering. This date is remembered annually on local, regional, and global levels.
I am certain that many in the blogosphere will dedicate some posts to commemorate this tragic event. However, inspired by the success of the “Blog About Jordan Day” initiative, i would like to start a formal initiative to encourage everybody to dedicate one post on Thursday, May 15th, to talk about Palestine or the Palestinian Experience.
There are no restrictions on what you can write, or the language that you can use. Really, anything that talks about Palestine, or the Palestinians; in the past, present, or future; political, social, economical, or any other aspect is welcomed. The goal of this event will be to share thoughts, and raise awareness about the Palestinian situation. Hopefully, with everyone’s support, this will be such a spectacular event that it will catch the eye of the mainstream media (specially that the Palestinian situation is inadequately and incorrectly represented in most of the western media outlets).
bruised earth is encouraging fellow bloggers to take part:
With May 15th fast approaching - and with it the 60th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba - a wonderful initiative dubbed ‘Blog About Palestine Day’ will take place encouraging sites and bloggers to write something, anything having to do with Palestine and the Occupation. This is a great chance to get behind an online movement - and bruisedearth.org will of course be proud to take part.
Sugar Cubes will also be blogging that day, and suggests topics:
On the 15th of May, bloggers everywhere will unite through blogging to help raise awareness about the Palestinian cause and what happened (and is still happening) 60 years ago on the 15th of May, 1948.
Your post could be a picture, an article, a video, a poem or something you’d like to say
In addition to the blogging, a Facebook group has been created to document May 15. The group informs readers:
You don't have to be a Palestinian or an Arab to participate. You could offer your views as a non-Palestinian on the issue. We just seek to get the word out and inform people about us.
Jose Murilo JuniorLatest of 117 posts
Marwa RakhaLatest of 4 posts
Lydia BeyoudLatest of 13 posts
Ayesha SaldanhaLatest of 64 posts
Sami Ben GharbiaLatest of 127 posts
Milton RamirezLatest of 18 posts
Mong PalatinoLatest of 323 posts
Ljubisa BojicLatest of 26 posts
Hyejin KimLatest of 162 posts
Luis Carlos DiazLatest of 9 posts
Onnik KrikorianLatest of 619 posts
Kelly ProctorLatest of 7 posts
the palestinians are thefirst people who converted to christianity, and became the first christians ever, and THEY are the ones who ran after Jesus all over Galilee..
its a shame that we americans participated in their 60 years exile and helped prolong their agony and modern day slavery and starvation.
its a shame that we made them the native indians of the old world and still there are millions of them refugees in tents all over the world just because we cant say NO to the Israeli lobi.
Thank you Jillian for help and spreading the word. So far the response has been overwhelming and this is promising to be a great event.
eddnash-surely you jest. It’s obvious that you know just about NOTHING about Christianity- a religion that was populated initially by Jewish people. The fact that the word ‘palestine’ didn’t even exist until the 20th century seems to have eluded you as ell as the fact that the PRIMARY reason for their situation today is the refusal by the arab “brothers” to assist them in any way other than to supply them with arms. You really should study the facts a bit more before you post. Had the arabs agreed to the initial partition at the end of WWI they would have ended up with 80% of the are that came to be called Palestine, had they agree to the partition in 1947, they would have ended up with over half, and had Yasser Arafat agreed to the settlement offered during his “reign” they would be much better off than they are today. Also, most of the problems that currently face the Gaza residents can be traced directly to the Hamas-not the Israelis, who, incidently- left the Gaza almost three years ago.
the word palestine didnt exist before 20th century?..you are nuts..go read your old testament and see how many times its mentioned..tell me what was the country called before judaism?..was it called the land awaiting to be Israel?..what a liar
you say the Israelis left Gaza?..you mean forced out of it, and kept bombarding it on a daily basis, and doing daily excursions to it to arrest anyone they want.
Israel has assasinated/poisoned Arafat after it seiged him and bombed his residence for years, and you talk about his REIGN?..and what did offer the poor man?..separate ghettos here and there like the native indian reservations in the US..
and by the way..the jewish people who populated christianity are not jews anymore..those are modern day palestinians..get a grip on history!!!
reason:
With all due respect, it appears that it is you who should do a little more reading.
1. The term “Palestine” started appearing around the 5th century BC. Even the Romans had a district called “Palaestina” in that area.
2. The 1947 partition plan gave 56% of the land to the proposed Jewish state, and about 43% to the proposed Arab state. So not more than half as you claimed.
3. Arafat could have never accepted the offer in Camp David because it did not give east Jerusalem (where the Palestinians live) to the Palestinians. There would have been an uproar on the streets had he done so.
4. Most recently, right after the Annapolis conference of last year –during which Israel said they’ll freeze settlement building. Israel continued expanded settlements just two days after coming back from the conference. There were no bombings, no rockets, nothing from the Palestinians to justify that.. they just did not have interest to abide by Annapolis it seems.
So, please get your facts straight. Do some Googling before you type.
Mr Reason
if you say the term/area Palestine was known to the romans, why did you type in yr first comment that the word Palestine didnt exist before 20th century?..you just thought the lie would go unnoticed as usual.
and if you say the international aggreements gave 43% for the palestinians why isnt Israel giving back what Israel stole?..they even decided to keep Golan hights and shebaa farms lebanon and probably would have been in South lebanon had they not been kicked out..I will tell you why..coz Israelis are thieves, and would keep every inch they can keep even it was in Hawaii..
it is truely shameful that when we are talking about the 60 years palestinian catastrophe you would find some people blaming the victim for being victimized.
Eddnash:
Take it easy. I was supporting your argument in response to that of “reason”. I think you thought my comment was his :-)
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