Khaled Odeh Allah

On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, the lessons of the Nakba have yet to be learned, despite the endless amount of writings and speeches about it.

I want to shed light on the case of the Arab Orphan School - Beit Hanina (Atarot) from the perspective of one of these lessons that we have not learned to this day, which is that: the Nakba was not a knockout loss, but rather a loss on points, meaning that the result of the catastrophic Nakba War of 1948 was the result of a series of small battles in all social, economic, institutional, political and military fields. These results accumulated to form the Nakba in their entirety.

Today everyone is shouting and preaching about Jerusalem, the Arab identity of Jerusalem and preserving it, while the actual practice on the ground in many locations and cases is the opposite of this lofty rhetoric. Hence, the crisis of the Arab Orphan School is a realistic test of our consistency with rhetoric, and our collective ability to resolve this crisis that threatens a historical monument, a long-standing educational institution, a Palestinian presence in the heart of a settlement, and one of the important locations for preserving the Arab identity of Jerusalem.

The issue here is not to hold this or that party responsible as much as it is to point out our collective failure to contain such a crisis and resolve it before it escalates and then the school becomes another lost paradise that we cry over and write poems about! As for the repeated titles of this failure since the time of the Nakba, they are: tyranny and administrative leadership authoritarianism, separation from reality and living in a world of dreams and wishes, managing internal crises with the logic of zero-sum conflicts…

Anyone who thinks that if he fails the test of preserving an institution threatened by confiscation and liquidation, he will be able to preserve the Arab identity of Jerusalem or confront the fierce Zionist colonial machine in all aspects of life is delusional. This statement is directed to all of us.

(With appreciation for all the efforts and struggles that kept this battle alive and open)