It is that time of year again. Oversized Israeli flags fluttering above buildings, homes and cars, firecrackers lighting up the night May sky and Israelis packing up their cars with picnic baskets and beach balls as they kick off the 58th anniversary of Israel’s independence. In a place full of contradictions, double standards and hypocrisy, for many Palestinians, this occasion represents the worst hypocrisy of them all.

On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. Although it is not unprecedented in history that countries gain their independence through war, either by conquest or by flinging off the yoke of colonization, there are few examples in history that match the circumstances under which Israel was created.

The Palestinians, the people at whose expense the Jewish state was established, have another word for Israel’s Independence Day – Al Nakba or The Catastrophe. In a matter of months, over 800,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes throughout Palestine. Hundreds of others were massacred by Jewish gangs in Deir Yassin and Ein Al Zaytoun as a tactic to terrorize people into fleeing. Villages were destroyed, people killed and homes left behind as horrified Palestinians fled the fighting between Jewish troops, Arab armies and Palestinian resistance groups, believing they would be allowed to return home in a matter of days. Continue: The Other Side of the Story