Phoenix’s Fight for Palestine

Before the Nakba

Also called ‘the Catastrophe’, 1948 was the year in which Israeli settlers ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians from their land and declared themselves an ethnostate, but not even that was the beginning of this violent conflict.

Backed by Western powers, Israel had the means to take Palestine with little retaliation and no repercussions.

Here is a timeline leading up to the Nakba:

1882: Jews from Eastern Europe began traveling to Palestine due to the rise of the Zionist ideology and anti-Semitic persecution. At the time, there was a Jewish-Palestinian population of 3% with no ties to Zionism known as the Yishuv. Different ethnicities and religions dwelled in several communities across the nation.

1896: Zionism was popularized by a pamphlet called ‘The Jewish State’, written by a journalist named Theodor Herzl.

1917: The end of the Ottoman Empire, in which the French and the British began dividing up the Middle East for colonial interests. The British took Palestine and declared they would aid in the establishment of the land as a home for Jewish people.

1919: The British began facilitating Jewish immigration to Palestine.

In the next two decades, the Jewish population in Palestine grew from 9% to 27%. This led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians as Zionists began to buy up land.

1936: The start of a Palestinian-Arab uprising against British support of Zionist settler colonialism. It was dismantled after three years, in which British authorities destroyed 2,000 Palestinian homes and put 9,000 Palestinians into violent concentration camps. There were thousands of deaths on both sides of the conflict.

1944: The British realized the harm they had caused and tried to put limits on Jewish immigration into Palestine. This came at a time when many Jews were fleeing Nazi persecution. Paramilitary Zionist forces began to lobby, and attack both the British and the Palestinians with bombings.

Throughout this time, there was still a steady increase of the Jewish population in Palestine.

1947: The British gave its colonial project in Palestine to the United Nations, unable to handle the mess they had created. The UN decided to split Palestine into two parts: a Jewish ethnostate and an Arab ethnostate.

The Jews were given 55% of the land from the 6% they possessed at the time including the main agricultural lands, seaports, and many of the country’s Arab-majority cities. This led to the rejection of the proposal by Palestinians.

1948: With the exit of the British, the Jewish population began their siege and takeover of Palestine. War broke out between armed, military-trained Zionists and Palestinians. On May 14, Israel declared itself an official state.

Facts of the Nakba:

–At least 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully expelled from their homes by violent militias

–78% of historic Palestine was captured by Zionist forces

–Over 500 villages were ethnically cleansed, destroyed, or both

–Over 70 massacres were committed by Zionists against the Palestinians

–Over 15,000 Palestinians were killed

Funded by Western powers, Israel has enforced their apartheid regime for 75 years. The Palestinian people endure constant violence and discrimination with little to no help from the outside world.

The violence against Palestine is not new, nor is it an isolated incident caused by the Hamas attack. The Palestinians have been fighting for their freedom for a long time, and though it took far too long to hear their cries for help, the world has finally stepped up.

To learn more about the history of Palestine, and see a more detailed timeline of the Nakba and all the lead up to it, visit here.

Hammad was born in Palestine but spent his childhood in the United States, often visiting his family back home where he was able to experience Israel’s regime for himself. 

Those childhood trips were vital in him truly grasping what it meant to live under occupation, forming him into the activist he is today. 

He believes events like the Slow Impact panel are important to his advocacy. By offering a different way of directing the conversation around Palestine, it is a vital step, however small, towards the country’s liberation. 

Though the skate community in Palestine is a new and small one, that does not take away from its importance. Skating there is entirely different from doing so in a place such as America, where the worst that happens is being chased away by security. Living under a brutal occupation is what makes the recreational act a revolutionary one. 

Bringing awareness to the skate community in Palestine not only lets the world know that they exist, but sheds light on the harsh truth of the occupation. 

Hammad spoke about how prominent skate companies visit Israel to film and document the scene as if it is “normal”. To put into a Western perspective, it is no different than uplifting a segregated city in the Jim Crow era of the United States. It erases the suffering of Palestinians that was caused for such places to exist, and ignores the ideology of supremacy that is used to justify the apartheid regime. 

Such issues and more were discussed at the Slow Impact panel, talking at length of the experience of living in Palestine, and how even being outside of the occupation still affects them. With the current genocide happening in Gaza, many find themselves unable to even skate. 

The desctruction caused by the war is catastrophic, and hearing from people who are personally affected not only by the genocide in Gaza, but by the decades-long occupation allows for an understanding that goes deeper than watching the news or hearing statistics. 

It is easy to feel helpless in the face of such atrocities and as Hammad says, “There’s no going back to October sixth”, but there is much that can and should be done. 

Hammad has been documenting his home of the occupied West Bank for seven years with photography, whether it be the blossoming skate scene or everyday life in Palestine. His work can be found on his website.  

He also encourages others to take action whether it be boycotting, protesting, or calling lawmakers. As Americans, whose tax dollars go to Israel by the billions annually, it is crucial to “not be complicit” in what is going on. 

The panel also discussed ways for people to get involved. While attending events and getting educated is important, donating to Palestinian foundations and individuals who are raising funds to escape Gaza are direct ways to make change. 

Being on the panel allowed Hammad to reach out to the Phoenix skate community in a way that brought awareness to sad realities, but also the hope of progress.  

“I have so much respect for all of the glory that is happening in Palestine,” he says. 

Though he knows there is a long journey ahead, he recognizes and appreciates all forms of resistance that are taken to move towards justice and liberation for his people.