Legacies of 1948:
Sixty Years of Searching for Justice

Participants of the Legacies of 1948: Sixty Years of Searching for Justice delegation.

In May 2008, Palestinians and Israelis will be marking the the 60th anniversary of both the founding of the state of Israel and Al Nakba - the Palestinian term for "the Catastrophe" of 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes in what is now Israel. This delegation will focus on the pivotal role of 1948 in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The American Friends Service Committee and Interfaith Peace-Builders are sponsoring a delegation of 17 participants to visit the region, learn about 1948, and meet with locals working for peace and justice. The delegation will be taking place May 26 - June 7, 2008.

The following reports are written by the delegation's participants, and are shared by AFSC for information and education. The views expressed in the reports may not be the positions of the American Friends Service Committee, but reflect delegate's experiences as they learn first-hand about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Report #5: The Weight of the Past

Walking through Yad Vashem, reading important facts concerning the racist ideologies of the Nazi era, stripping the Jews of their rights, the camps, the deaths, I could feel myself closing off to the rest of the world, the weight of fear settling around my neck. I perceived that all these things were being tied to the Zionist narrative which holds that the Jews have been so injured that no other nation can be trusted with our safety. Carrying the Holocaust on our shoulders causes us to insist that our survival depends on having a state, and that this end therefore justifies any means to achieve it.

Report #4: Bethlehem – Reconciliation & Return

I keep asking myself, how can we have three generations of refugees – and no real solution in sight? How can you live at Dheisheh, in the shadows of a large (and illegal) settlement and just a short distance from the homes and villages you were forced to leave, and maintain hope?

Report #3: Sixty Years Later – An Ongoing Nakba

Delegates visit a destroyed Palestinian village

Until today, we heard how the Occupation--which began in 1967--led to Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Our trip to Galilee in northern Israel changed everything. Standing on the foundations of Palestinian homes with their previous occupants brought a deeper understanding of this conflict and its origins.

Report #2: Negotiating "Surreal Juxtapositions"

The silent cries of the ancient Jerusalem are just as loud in the alleys of Ramallah, the corners of Hebron and the circles of Nablus, as it is in the malls of New York, the cafes of Rio de Janeiro and the streets of Mozambique.

Choice is ours – either we can be deafeningly loud or screamingly silent, merely calling for or fiercely working for peace. Else, the echoes of the past will continue to haunt us in the future as it is the case in the present in the silent screaming streets of ancient Jerusalem.

Report #1: Contrasting Realities in Israel/Palestine

A destroyed Palestinian house in East Jerusalem.

We did not have the ill fortune to witness a home demolition in progress, but we did see the evidence of several. Rubble lying in heaps in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. We saw also how this and other Palestinian neighborhoods in this part of East Jerusalem were slowly being strangled by expanding Israeli settlements on all sides, and plans for further ones to connect these into a massive block creating islands of Arab inhabitants who are isolated from essential services. This is not to mention the Separation Barrier that has split extended families from one another, an example of which we met.