Should the students of the University of Minnesota demand the Board of Regents divest from companies that are 1) complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, 2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty?
Al Nakba
Al Nakba, or 'the catastrophe' in Arabic, refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from 1947-49 by Zionist forces. Some facts and figures about the Nakba, from the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding:
For more information, read here
- Between 750,000 and one million : The number of Palestinians expelled and made refugees by Zionist paramilitaries, and subsequently Israeli forces, during Israel’s creation in 1947-49.
- Between 250,000 and 350,000 : The number of Palestinians expelled from their homes by Zionist paramilitaries between the passage of the UN partition plan in November 1947 and Israel’s declaration of independence on May15, 1948 - prior to the start of the war with neighboring Arab states.
- Approximately 7.1 million : The number of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons as of 2009, including Nakba survivors and their descendants. They are located mostly in the occupied West Bank and neighboring Arab countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, denied their internationally-recognized legal right to return to their homeland by Israel, simply because they are not Jewish.
- Approximately 150,000 : The number of Palestinians who remained inside what became Israel's borders in 1948, many of them internally displaced. These Palestinians (sometimes called “Israeli Arabs”) were granted Israeli citizenship but stripped of most of their land and placed under martial law until 1966. Today, there are approximately 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who live as second-class citizens in their own homeland, subject to more than 50 laws that discriminate against them because they are not Jewish.
- At least two dozen : The number of massacres of Palestinian civilians by Zionist and Israeli forces, which played a crucial role in spurring the mass flight of Palestinians from their homes.
- Approximately 100 : The number of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, massacred in the town of Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948, by members of the Irgun and Stern Gang, pre-state Zionist terrorist organizations led by future Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, respectively.
- More than 400 : The number of Palestinian cities and towns systematically destroyed by Israeli forces or repopulated with Jews between 1948 and 1950. Most Palestinian population centers, including homes, businesses, houses of worship, and vibrant urban centers, were demolished to prevent the return of their Palestinian owners, now refugees outside of Israel's pre-1967 borders, or internally displaced inside of them. (See here for interactive map of Palestinian population centers destroyed during Israel's creation.)
- Approximately 4,244,776 : The number of acres of Palestinian land expropriated by Israel during and immediately following its creation in 1948.
- Between 100 and 200 billion : The total estimated monetary loss of Palestinians dispossessed during Israel's creation, in current US dollars.
For more information, read here
The Occupation
Since 1967, the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem have been subject to a brutal military occupation. The colonization of Palestine has taken the form of an illegal apartheid wall, Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, arbitrary arrests, and escalating violence on the part of settlers and the Israeli military.
Gaza
Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions
In 2005, Palestinian Civil Society made the call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) asking for the international community to impose boycotts and divestment campaigns and work towards sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law.
BDS has three main goals: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. |
Resources
The Crisis in Gaza Explained
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
Q&A with BDS Co-Founder Omar Barghouti
Life in Gaza
According to the UN, Gaza is Unlivable
BDS Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Israel and International Law: Gaza
Israel and International Law: The Wall
Israel and International Law: Settlements
50 Years of Israeli Military Rule, 70 Years of Palestinian Dispossession
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
Q&A with BDS Co-Founder Omar Barghouti
Life in Gaza
According to the UN, Gaza is Unlivable
BDS Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Israel and International Law: Gaza
Israel and International Law: The Wall
Israel and International Law: Settlements
50 Years of Israeli Military Rule, 70 Years of Palestinian Dispossession