Palestinians march in annual mourning ritual

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold boards during a rally marking Nakba Day, outside Tel Aviv University, as a counter-protest (not pictured) was held nearby, May 14, 2012. On May 15, Palestinians will mark Nakba Day, or day of catastrophe, of Israel's founding in a 1948 war, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced to leave their homes. REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST)

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http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-march-annual-mourning-ritual-090357021.html

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinians on Tuesday marked their mass displacement that followed Israel's creation with a blend of sadness and hope, stopping in their tracks for a mournful siren but also flashing victory signs and carrying banners proclaiming their right of return.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their villages during the war that established the Jewish state in 1948, an event they commemorate every year as their "Nakba," or catastrophe.

Today, surviving refugees and their descendants number several million who are scattered across the globe, many still living in squalid camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and surrounding Arab countries.

Saadat Jaber, 62, said he has passed on the story of his family's uprooting from what is now the Israeli city of Lod to his offspring.

"I still have hope," Jaber said as he marched with thousands of others to the center of the West Bank town of Ramallah. "Now Israel is a great power, but there were empires in history that collapsed and people that were oppressed by these empires took back their rights."

In three West Bank areas north and south of Jerusalem, dozens of Palestinian stone-throwers clashed with Israeli troops who fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel pellets. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 30 people were hurt by the rubber bullets and dozens suffered from tear gas inhalation.

The 64th anniversary of the Nakba comes after nearly two decades of failed efforts to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state with Israel....READ MORE