Israeli soldiers scuffle with human rights activists on the outskirts of the West Bank village of Beit Ummar near Hebron. (Mamoun Wazwaz, Maan Images)

The battle is not over some road signs or over the status of the Arabic language or over the school curricula for grade three or four; it is a battle over raising awareness and historical accounts.

The battle is not over a decision to change signs related to arts or technology; the battle is over an attempt to "Zionize" the account and to deny the Arab essence of the towns. The victims, or rather the symbols of this battle are the sons of the growing generation who are being brought up on Natzrat not An Nasira [Nazareth], Yerushalim not Al Quds [Jerusalem], Gush Khalav not Al Jish [Jish], Kom Miut not Nakba. They are being raised on the Zionist version of the story and not the real one.

They are scared. The racists are scared because they have no trust in their version or in its endurance. This is why they attack words, awareness and history in a bid to rewrite history from scratch after our anti-Zionist version began to take root over the past two decades. It was establishing itself here and there, not just amongst ourselves but also within Israeli academic circles and in universities and research centres and also in the West and its universities. They attack those who want to remember the tragedy and the tragedy of their families and their demolished towns. What happened in 1948 was a "Nakba" [catastrophe] in the real sense of the word; people were driven out of their homes, families were broken up, people's lands were confiscated, people were expelled and some of them fled, and an entire nation was destroyed before it could rebuild itself. Isn't that a Nakba?

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