It seems the cries of the Kashmiri Muslims of Indian occupied Kashmir have finally reached the ears of the international community. Some of the international human rights bodies have been pleading with the United Nations Secretary General to take cognizance of the situation in theThe 14th of May marked the 64th anniversary of Nakba or ‘The Catastrophe'. The phrase is a reminder of the century's most brazen aggression on a land and planting of an illegitimate state on it by banishing its own people and its colonization by foreigners. It was on this day in 1948 when the British mandate of Palestine ended and the Israeli state was proclaimed by the Jewish people on the Palestinian land. From then on a trail of blood and tears started for the Palestinian Arabs. They were uprooted from their hearths and homes and driven out of their land. First they were huddled into camps in Palestine, and later due to constant harassment by the Israeli terrorists they had to take refuge in the neighboring Arab states.

It all started with the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the Britain assuring the Zionists of British support for "the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine". The declaration was later confirmed by all the Allied states and formed the basis of the League of Nations mandate for Palestine. The trouble for the Palestinian Arabs began right from 1920 when the mandate was assigned to Britain. Jews from everywhere, particularly from Europe, starting coming to Palestine. From an original population of a few thousands, they swelled to over 800 thousand by 1948. A systematic campaign was launched by the Jews to hound out the Palestinian Arabs. The Jewish immigrants formed terrorist gangs called Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang who would kill, terrorise or kidnap the Arabs to make them flee from the land. Palestinians' protests to the British administration remained ineffective because the latter had sponsored the Jewish state and covertly supported the Jewish immigrants. The United States was even more supportive of them because of the Jewish voting pressure.

The following 64 years have been a story of continuing aggression by Israel and its atrocities on the Palestinians and of treachery and broken promises by the western powers led by the United States.

The Palestinians and the Arab states refused to recognize Israel and went to war right after the proclamation of the Jewish state, but that resulted in Israel occupying more Palestinian land and putting up settlements there. Arab efforts like the blockade of Gulf of Aqaba by Egypt in 1955 led to further defeats and to the Sinai campaign by Israel in secret collaboration of Britain and France and the Suez Crisis of 1956.

Meanwhile, Israel's colonization of the Palestinian lands continued unabated and by early 60s the number of Jewish immigrants had crossed 10 million. In 1967 came the disastrous Six Day War in which Israel occupied the whole of Sinai, West Bank and Golan Heights on the Syrian frontier. Egypt and Syria tried to avenge their defeat by a surprise attack on Israel in 1973, the so called Yom-e-Kippur war, but with not much result.

A new phase started with Saadat initiative of 1977 in an effort to find a peaceful solution of the dispute followed by Camp David talks, Oslo etc., etc. But with no positive results for the Arabs.

The worst victims of the 64- year- old melodrama are the Palestinian Arabs who are now encamped in shrinking enclaves in Gaza and West Bank. All efforts at finding a peaceful solution of the problem have failed and have proved no better than letting Israel strengthen its vice like grip on what little is left of the Palestinians' land to whom it is not prepared to allow more than a municipal status. All talk of two-state solution and US mediation etc., has failed to provide any hope to the Palestinians.

The planting of the illegal state of Israel on the Palestinian land in the heart of the Arab world and the continued aggression and intransigence of Israel with overt and covert support of the western world led by the United States, is the biggest threat to the world peace today and a challenge to the entire Muslim world.

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