While Israel celebrates, Palestinians in their refugee camps lament 60 years of exile
Last updated at 17:03 14 May 2008As U.S. President George Bush joined Israel's leaders to celebrate the nation's 60th birthday today, Palestinians too were marking a milestone which they regard as a tragedy.
Like many Gaza residents, retired teacher Ahmed Abdallah was lamenting 60 years since the forces of the then-new Jewish state killed his relatives and forced him into exile.
"I saw my mother in tears every time she remembered our family being slaughtered," he said in the Jabalya refugee camp which has been his home since 1948.
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Symbolic: Palestinian children hold ginat keys to represent their homes their families lost
In that year, a shell killed most of his family as they fled from a village north of Gaza under fire.
Aged two at the time, Mr Abdallah was wounded. But he and his mother lived to join more than 700,000 other Palestinians as refugees from homes now lying inside Israel.
He spoke today as Palestinians mourned the Al Nakba - Arabic for "Catastrophe" - that befell their people.
Groups numbering in the hundreds marched today to highlight the plight of refugees and their descendants, 4.5 million of whom now live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or further afield, many of them in grim camps.
Some protesters in the West Bank threw stones at Israeli troops and police. Several were hurt by rubber bullets.
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Mourning: A regugee in on the Lebanon-Israeli border displays a Palestinian flag while a Lebanese soldier watches
Chanting "We want to return to Palestine," around 1,000 Palestinians from camps in southern Lebanon protested at the Israeli border.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, of Gaza's Islamist ruling group Hamas, declared Mr Bush a hypocrite who was unwelcome in the Holy Land.
"Bush's visit is unacceptable. He is coming to celebrate 60 years of our bloodshed," he said.
"He is coming to encourage them to cause us more suffering."
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has condemned the Israeli celebrations as "meaningless" unless there is a just peace.
Nakba events will culminate in sirens signalling two minutes silence tomorrow.
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The future: Children mark Nakba Day in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, southern Lebanon
Thousands of black balloons, denoting each day since Israel was established on May 15, 1948, will rise above the West Bank. Organisers hope to darken the sky over Jerusalem for Mr Bush.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched peace talks in November and Bush is pressing for a deal on Palestinian statehood before he leaves office in January - a timeline sceptics say is too ambitious.
Negotiations have been marred by quarrels over Jewish settlement building and violence in the Gaza Strip.
While many Israelis view President Bush as the best friend they ever had in the White House, in Gaza Mr Abdallah and many fellow Palestinians doubt he can broker a fair peace deal.
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Nakba Day: Palestinian girls wave flags on the Israeli side of the Lebanon border to mark the 'catastrophe' that was the establishment of Israel
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"We have begun to lose faith in those who claim to promote democracy and human rights," he said.
"We have seen your human rights attitude in Palestine, in Iraq and in Afghanistan."
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