Marches to mark Nakba day take place in Argentina, Chile and Mexico

(16 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buenos Aires, Argentina - 15 May 2024
1. Various of activists performing
2. Protesters with a sign that reads (Spanish) "Immediate cease fire now"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santiago, Chile - May 15, 2024
3. Wide of a person wearing a skull mask waving a Palestinian flag as he wears a Palestino Football Club shirt that reads (Spanish) "Free Palestine"
4. Various of students shouting in the main hall of University of Chile
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexico City, Mexico - 15 May 2024
5. Various of demonstrators marching in support of Palestinians
STORYLINE:
Activists in Argentina, Chile and Mexico held protests to remember Nakba Day, which commemorates the mass expulsion of some 700,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel.
That massacre, other attacks on Palestinian villages, and the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation spurred what is called the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe.
Israel holds the Palestinians and Arab states responsible for the events of 1948 because they rejected the U.N. partition plan and declared war. It also notes that Palestinians who did not leave in 1948 are Israeli citizens.
Israel rejects the idea of a right of return because if it was fully implemented it would threaten its existence as a Jewish-majority state. And it notes that hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced out or fled Arab countries in the wake of Israel's founding and were absorbed by the newly independent country.
Israeli leaders have said the Palestinian refugees should be absorbed by neighboring Arab states or in a future Palestinian state. The fate of the refugees was a major point of contention in peace talks going back to the 1990s.
Nakba remembrances have taken on new significance this year, as more than twice that number have been displaced within Gaza since the start of Israel-Hamas war, which was triggered when militants from Gaza attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
In Chile, which has what is considered the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, events and actions that highlight the Nakba will take place throughout May.
Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage during its Oct. 7 attack. Israel responded with one of the heaviest military onslaughts in recent history, killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Families in Gaza have been forced to evacuate to different locations numerous times in the last seven months after receiving warnings from the Israeli military, and tens of thousands of people now live in tents. Israeli officials say the evacuations are aimed at sparing civilian life as they combat Hamas fighters.
But many in Gaza say they have nowhere to go, with entire neighborhoods destroyed. The fear now is if Palestinians leave Gaza altogether, they, like those who were forced to leave in 1948, will never be allowed to return.
AP Video shot by Victor R. Caivano, Mauricio Cuevas and Martin Silva
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