Rose Asaf
Occupied Palestine ’48
Zochrot
Today marks the end of my second month working at Zochrot. The past two months have been rife with thrill, disgust, amazement, sadness, mundanity, and the like. My human rights-based work has been meaningful within the confines of Zochrot’s framework and has extended beyond it as well.
Existing in as tense a space as greater Palestine while simultaneously immersing myself into its histories has been a source of internal conflict but has also motivated me to engage myself in all efforts that work toward decolonization. In the following series of blog posts, I will document my experiences both in and outside of the office and how they all ultimately boil down to the reality of the Nakba and its ongoing consequences. The Nakba refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinians by Zionist forces between 1947-49. More than 750,000 Palestinians were pushed from their homes, becoming internally displaced and refugees.
Zochrot finds itself in a unique and lonely position in Israeli society, as it is the most well-known and established NGO in Israel that explicitly calls for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and focuses on raising awareness of the Nakba. Most other well-known Israel human rights organizations, such as Btselem, Breaking the Silence, Yesh Din, Machsom Watch, etc., take a broader anti-occupation stance, which allows flexibility at the cost of precision in their work.
Anti-occupation activism and rhetoric tend to focus primarily on a 1967-based analysis. 1967 is the year that Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, following the 1967 War. While the occupation is a violation of international law and degrades the everyday existence of Palestinians, anti-occupation discourse frames the issue as if it began in 1967 rather than in 1948, when the Nakba occurred. Criticizing only the occupation ignores the settler/colonial context of the situation in Palestine and also legitimizes the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba.
Zochrot exists to reject the hollow ambiguity of anti-occupation activities and analysis. Focusing wholly on the Nakba, Zochrot interprets the events since 1967 as a continuation of the ethnic cleansing of 1948. In addition, rather than treating the Nakba as a singular event, it is used as an analytical tool with which to trace the dispossession of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to present day.
Zochrot’s position is an unpopular one because it calls into question the legitimacy of Israel’s foundation and existence. That said, a Nakba-based analysis of the plight of Palestinians is taboo even amongst the Israeli left, thus leaving Zochrot without many local allies and supporters. However, Zochrot’s goal is to change its lonely reality by breaking the taboo and stigma related to the Nakba.