As the 75th anniversary of the Nakba on 15 May passes by, historians of the Middle East would look and see a region changed many times over, sometimes positively and other times not so much. 75 years is a long time after all, yet there are certain constants persisting to this day. Might and creating faits accomplis on the ground is by and large still king. International relations are mainly dominated by power. Palestinians’ rights, in all their aspects, are still being violated. Checkpoints restrict their freedom of movement. Water resources are constrained by the occupation. The Palestinian economy is suppressed by Israeli oppression. What’s left of the land is split in two and constantly shrinking due to illegal settlement building. One of my former professors once described the West Bank as “Swiss cheese,” with disconnected cantons in a sea of occupied land. The brutality of the Israeli government has become more exposed with time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed child Muhammad Al-Durrah during the Second Intifada and even tried to discredit the live broadcast of Al-Durrah’s death. More recently, the IDF murdered renowned journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, issued…
75 Years Later, A Changed Middle East Requires a Different Approach to Palestine
May 17, 2023
