Yom Ha'atzmaut - Arab Reactions and The Nakba

Arab Reactions and The Nakba

While there may be some Arab citizens of Israel who celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut, the majority regard it as a tragic day in their history referred to as al-Nakba ("the catastrophe")

“Your independence is our Nakba” is a slogan constantly in use.

"Jewish independence is our day of mourning" was chanted by thousands of demonstrating Arab Israelis.

Arab-Israeli MK Taleb El Sana proclaimed to Nakba protesters that “the Nakba is equivalent to the destruction of the First and Second Temples.”

On 23 March 2011, the Knesset approved, by a vote of 37 to 25, a change to the budget, giving the Israeli Finance Minister the discretion to reduce government funding to any non-governmental organization (NGO) that organizes Nakba commemoration events.

After months of legislative limbo due to numerous appeals filed by multiple organizations (e.g. Adalah, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as well as several Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel) the Supreme Court of Israel rejected the appeals, and upheld the Nakba Law, on January 5, 2012. President Dorit Beinisch and Justices Eliezer Rivlin and Miriam Naor concluded: "The declarative level of the law does indeed raise difficult and complex questions. However, from the outset, the constitutionality of the law depends largely upon the interpretation given to the law's directives."

In specific, the law enables the state to fine local communities and other state-funded groups for holding events that mark what the Arab community calls the Nakba. Fines, deducted from a group's operating budget, could equal up to three times the event's sponsorship cost; repeat violations would double the fines.