[R-G] Gazans remember 1948 exodus

[Anthony Fenton]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/05/2009515144630310327.html

Gazans remember 1948 exodus
Thousands of Palestinians marked the anniversary, waving flags and  
shouting slogans [AFP]

Thousands of Palestinians have gathered in the Gaza Strip to mark the  
61st anniversary of the "Nakba", or "catastrophe", which describes the  
dispersal of hundreds of thousands of refugees following the creation  
of Israel.

In the Jabaliya refugee camp, thousands of people waved Palestinian  
flags and Hamas banners, while others held placards with the names of  
villages destroyed by Israeli forces during the 1948 war.

"We will return to Jaffa and to all our lands," some of the crowd  
shouted, while others proclaimed: "We will not recognise Israel".

Supporters gathered after Friday prayers, with several hundred people  
later walking to within 2km of the the Israeli border.

Ahmad Bahar, a senior Hamas official, told the crowd that the  
Palestinian people "will never give up the right of return" to their  
homes and land in Israel.

The Gaza demonstrations on Friday came a day after similar ceremonies  
were held in cities across the West Bank, a sign of the continuing  
divisions between the two main Palestinian factions.

Palestinian split

In video

  Nakba remembered amid Gaza suffering

  Palestinian child pays price of Israel's siege
More videos...
Hamas, which seized power in Gaza more than two years ago, reportedly  
prevented the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from holding  
Nakba events in the territory on Thursday.

The two factions have been in dispute since June 2007, when Hamas  
forced PLO supporters out of Gaza.

On Thursday, demonstrators marched through cities across the West  
Bank, holding Palestinian flags and images of Arab villages razed by  
Israeli forces.

In Ramallah, demonstrators waved banners reading, "The right of return  
is sacred," and "Return, Jerusalem And Self-Determination: Our  
Struggle Will Continue" as they gathered at the tomb of Yasser Arafat,  
the late Palestinian leader.

About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes  
during the creation of the Israeli state six decades ago.

Palestinians demand the right for the 4.6 million descendants of those  
who fled in 1948 to return to their lands that are now inside Israel.