By our Respondents reporter
The Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Tanzania, H.E. Salam Abu Sharar, has described the Nakba as a continuing legacy of displacement and injustice, as the country prepares to mark the 78th anniversary of the event.
Speaking ahead of commemorations scheduled in Dar es Salaam, the envoy said the 1948 displacement of Palestinians should not be viewed as a historical episode alone, but as an ongoing humanitarian and political issue affecting generations of refugees.
He recounted that many Palestinians had initially welcomed Jewish immigrants fleeing Europe prior to and during the Second World War, before the situation escalated into what he described as forced displacement and loss of homes.
“The tragedy of the Nakba is that it unfolded at a time when Palestinians had opened their homes and hearts… only for that hospitality to later be turned against them,” he said.
Ambassador Abu Sharar said the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 resulted in widespread dispossession, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced and more than 500 villages and towns destroyed or depopulated during the conflict.
He further referred to the 1948 UN partition plan, arguing that it disproportionately allocated land despite Palestinians forming a majority of the population at the time, and criticized subsequent laws which he said prevented displaced Palestinians from returning while allowing Jewish immigration.
“The minute we accept this as a fact, we accept this happening anywhere else in the world, not only in Palestine,” he said, urging continued international attention to the issue.
The envoy said Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank today are descendants of those displaced in 1948, describing them as refugees from the original Nakba.
This year’s commemoration marks 78 years since the displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of more than 530 towns and villages during the establishment of Israel in May 1948, according to historical records cited by Palestinian sources.
The Embassy of the State of Palestine in Tanzania will mark the occasion in Dar es Salaam on Saturday, May 16, bringing together diplomats, government officials, religious leaders and members of the international community. The event will include a cultural performance depicting the events of 1948 as part of efforts to preserve historical memory.
