Naqba

The Naqba commemorations are certainly something that I’d heard about previously but I’d never experienced them first hand until this Sunday.

During my mishpat ivri class (basically how to turn halacha into a legal system) there began to be a whole lot of noise coming from outside. Helicopters were flying over head and were swooping down to the nearby Arab villages of Issawiye and Sheikh Jarrakh. We then heard a whole lot of shooting and explosions as well. Obviously I initially assumed they were massacring people on the university campus but it turns out that actually it was simply the helicopters and riot police shooting tear gas and potentially rubber bullets as well in the suburbs nearby. These explosions were then followed by the sounds of people (to me they sounded female) screaming and crying. I assumed that this was from the victims of the explosions. Needless to say I was convinced that a teeny tiny miniature war had erupted on campus. It turns out however that the screams were out of concern for what was happening but not actually anybody who was affected by the violence in the riots.

While this was going on the lecturer continued lecturing. Much like the day of the bomb at binyanei hauma the class continued while the students attempted to work out what was going on in the outside world. Text messages were frantically being sent out and news websites were being checked. At one point a particularly brave student stood up to go look out to window into the neighbouring villages to see what was happening.

I know that this story should be off-putting and make me be concerned about living in the middle east. The truth is however, that it does the opposite. I want to live where the action is and where history is being made. I don’t want to be in the sidelines, I’d prefer to be at the main event. And yes, Naqba makes me sad because it means that national self-determination is being denied to the Palestinians and that our role as super good Jews who care about other people and stuff like that is still not being fulfilled. But I gotta say – I’m mighty excited for September to see if there’ll be a need for another Naqba commemoration next year!