By Benay Blend
For Palestinians, existence is resistance, as it is for other colonized cultures.
On May 15, 2024, Palestinians will commemorate Nakba 76 during what some are calling worse than the first disaster in 1948. “Entire neighborhoods have been wiped out by the occupation, which left behind a great deal of destruction after its withdrawal.
As of December 31, 2023, the number of Palestinians killed in 2023 had been the largest since the Nakba of 1948. Israeli officials have shown no qualms in calling for a second Nakba. None of this is new, as many would like to claim. Despite the ongoing tragedies, Palestinians remain defiant, tirelessly resisting the Israeli invasion.
As we navigate through the tragic stories coming out of Gaza, the life of a Palestinian unfolds as a paradox – a delicate equilibrium between enduring suffering and embodying steadfast resistance. Palestinians exist as both victims and survivors of 76 years of daily Nakbas that they have resisted in different ways.
In the process, Palestinians do more than just exist; they look for beauty where they can find it – in the jasmine plant, in the music of the flute. This year, the Nakba serves as a day of mourning past and present tragedies, but also a time to celebrate life and culture that is rooted in a land whose existence predates the Zionist state.
– Benay Blend earned her doctorate in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her scholarly works include Douglas Vakoch and Sam Mickey, Eds. (2017), “‘Neither Homeland Nor Exile are Words’: ‘Situated Knowledge’ in the Works of Palestinian and Native American Writers”. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.