Vigil and protest marks 75th anniversary of Nakba, the forced removal of Palestinians
Around a dozen protesters on Wednesday gathered at Providence and Broadway to remember the Nakba, the forced removal of Palestinians from their homelands by Zionists 75 years ago on Monday.
The word is Arabic for "catastrophe."
One of them was Ahmad Murawid, who had been at the intersection two or three times a day for several weeks. Murawid, a Syrian immigrant, said he's in his 80s. He carried a sign reading "Free Palestine For Peace."
He calls his southwest corner of the intersection "Free Palestine Friendly Square."
He appreciates Americans who realize the suffering of Palestinians, he said.
The Israeli government has mistreated Palestinians for decades, he said.
"This apartheid system is doing ethnic cleansing," Murawid said. "It's the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians."
People are happy when they see him with his sign, he said.
"This is not against anyone" and not anti-Semitism, he said.
Despite his regular appearances, Murawid said he didn't want to be a focus.
"I'm not the issue," he said. "The issue is Palestine. More and more, people are realizing how terrible the situation is."
Leading and participating in chants of "Free, free Palestine" and "Palestine will be free" and "End Israeli apartheid" was Isleen Atallah.
Born and raised in Palestine, she said her first name is the name of the village her grandfather was forced from.
"There's not a lot of people who know about Palestine," Atallah said. "I'm proud of who I am and where I come from."
She moved to Columbia around two years ago, she said.
She didn't require her family to tell her about the Nakba, she said.
"I'm a third-generation refugee," Atallah said. "You get to hear about it, but you get to live it. The Nakba is never over."
George Smith is passionate about the Palestinian cause. The University of Missouri professor emeritus shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2018.
His sign read "End 75 years of Israeli terrorism."
The Nakba expelled 83% of the people from their territories and homes, he said.
"It's the root of the injustices of Palestine," Smith said of the Nakba. "It was horrible injustice and it was condoned and supported by the West."
Western nations were guilty about what they allowed to happen to the Jews during the Holocaust and wanted them to have a homeland, Smith said.
It was understandable, but the injustice needs to be corrected, he said.
"What we as Americans can do, like with South Africa, is show solidarity with the Palestinian cause," Smith said.
It's a settler-colonialism system, just as white European Americans did to indigenous people, he said.
The protest isn't anti-Semitic, he said. He doesn't hate Jews. He disagrees with the Israeli government's actions.
The protest was co-sponsored by Missourians for Justice in Palestine and the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Around a dozen people protest ouster of Palestinians 75 years ago
