By George Swarei
The power of live theater and performance is invaluable. The performing arts play an important role in lifting spirits, bringing people together and inspiring us all, especially during difficult times.
Theatre was the medium of expression this Wednesday in Harare when the State of Palestine Embassy in Harare collaborated with Hot Haus Troupe Theatre to commemorate the Nakba Massacre of 1948.
Every year on May 15, Palestinians mark this sombre occasion: the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) that befell Palestinians in the lead-up to and during 1948, when they were expelled from their historic and ancestral land by Zionist militias.
The performance dubbed Chindunduma was staged at Jasen Mpepho’ Little Theatre in Eastlea Harare, and left the audience pondering upon the Palestinian question and the People’s quest for freedom from Israel continual aggression.
Ambassador Tamer al Massri took the opportunity to highlight on the predicament facing Palestinians daily in the hands of Israel. Ambassador Tamar Almassri chronicle how the genocide ensued.
During the Nakba, a mass expulsion ensued where hundreds of villages were depopulated, homes were destroyed, and thousands were killed.
Walid Khalid writing in his book “All that remains” paints a gloomy picture of how on December 31, 1947, the first large attack by the Haganah Zionist militia took place against the village of Balad al-Sheikh, (the village was the second-largest in historical Palestine in terms of population) east of the port city of Haifa, in which 60 to 70 Palestinians were killed.
The raiding militias were to kill as many adult males as possible. A force of 170 men fired their weapons and blew up houses, then pulling out adult males and shooting them in cold blood. After the massacre, on January 7, 1948, many families fled the village. By late April of that year, Zionist forces had occupied it.
Two massacres were carried out by the Israeli militia’s in 1948: One in mid-February and another at the end of October. According to Khalidi’s book, on February 15, a force raided the village of Saasaa and detonated explosives inside several homes, destroying 10 houses and killing “tens”, according to estimates.
Another massacre was perpetrated on October 30, when “mass murder” took place, according to All That Remains. The village was eventually depopulated.
Before 1948, the village was known for being at an intersection that linked many urban centres, including Safad. It was dotted with water springs, apple and olive trees, as well as grape vines. In 1949, an Israeli settlement by the same name was established on the village site.
On April 9, 1948, more than 110 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered in one of the most heinous crimes carried out. The massacre took place in the once-prosperous village of Deir Yassin on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. Those who were captured were rounded up and paraded through the Old City of Jerusalem. Some were then taken to a nearby quarry and executed. Others were taken back to the village and killed.
The massacre at the village – home to an estimated 750 residents who lived in the 144 houses, according to the Institute for Palestine Studies – became one of the most horrific events to have impacted the exodus of Palestinians. Money and women’s jewelery were looted at leisure by Israeli soldiers. Some were killed if they resisted. There was so much looting that 1,800 trucks were said to have been loaded with stolen property.
