Celebration attempts to erase tragic history

How can anyone protest a birthday? A day of joy, of happiness,
of picnics, parties, barbecues and ““ in this case ““
Israeli flags fluttering in the wind. Surely nothing in this
picture, to the average Bruin, should merit such protest. And all
who participate in such an act of protest are merely anti-Semites
who wish for Israel’s death. It’s a bit harsh, yet this
simple and inaccurate analysis is one that prevails this time of
year after the annual celebration of Israeli Independence Day. As
one who has participated in these protests yearly, I hope to clear
some misinterpretations.

Yearly, members of the Muslim Student Association and other
groups protest Israeli Independence Day celebrations, but in
reality, they are more sad than angry. While others commemorate
Israel’s establishment, those protesting against
Israel’s independence day mourn the day Israel expelled more
than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians from their homes through
coercion, massacres and the destruction of homes and property.
Before 1948, the land now known as Israel belonged to the
Palestinians. Somehow, those who realize this just can’t seem
to wear a smile this time of year, let alone a party hat.

Frederick Douglass once said in a famous address, “What,
to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” He answered,
“A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the
year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant
victim.” This is the same with the Palestinians, because not
only do Israeli independence celebrations remind them of that
horrible day, but they also remind them of the tremendous cruelty
they are now suffering.

There is nothing like Israeli Independence Day to manifest
Israel’s current total disregard of the Palestinians. It is
celebrated as a supposedly peaceful, apolitical and patriotic event
that no one should think of as disturbing. At UCLA it is filled
with flags, Israeli songs, food and other cultural establishments,
all of which serve the political purpose of creating the false
facade of normalcy ““ erasing from history what that day did
to the Palestinians, as if Israel is just like any other
nation.

But Israel is not like any other nation. It continues to
maintain a cruel military occupation of what little there is left
of Palestine. It continues its construction of an eight-meter-high
concrete wall that seizes Palestinian homes, farmland and water
resources. It continues to violate international law by illegally
establishing and expanding numerous civilian settlements in the
occupied territories, forcing the Palestinians into smaller and
smaller areas as over 400,000 Israelis crowd the settlements. And
thousands of Palestinian men, women and children are killed, often
for no reason at all. According to the American Educational
Trust’s Web site, rememberthesechildren.org, Ra’ed
Ahmed Al-Batash, an innocent 11-year-old bystander, was shot and
killed with his brother by an Israeli missile blast during a
“targeted” assassination last March. In the same month,
Akaber “˜Abdul Rahman “˜Ezzat Zayed, only 8 years old,
was killed by a live bullet

to the head during an Israeli

incursion.

When a nation that commits the crimes Israel has celebrates
without any question, it is lying, creating a false reality. There
is no longer an outrage, just people singing and dancing. The
silent protest on Israeli independence has a clear objective. It is
a protest against the repeated use of such celebrations to erase
what happened on the day Israel became a nation by never mentioning
it and pretending that Israel is currently not committing any
atrocities.

Israel’s state holiday is also the day of
Palestine’s largest tragedy. If those celebrating
Israel’s independence also recognize what Israel’s
independence did to the Palestinian people ““ and if they
recognize that Palestinian independence and dignity is just as
important and critical to a long-lasting peace ““ perhaps
there would be less of a reason to protest.

Khan is a fourth-year film, political science and history
student.