By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News

Published: May 14, 2008

Every anniversary of Israel's birth is another scar on the soul of every Palestinian. Six decades have elapsed since Israel's reign of terror when 700,000 Palestinians were forced or intimidated into fleeing their homes little knowing they would never be allowed to return.

Most were destined to live out their lives in refugee camps, stateless and reliant upon charitable donations. The few who managed to return clutching precious keys and deeds were usually devastated to discover their home had been demolished or their village erased giving fuel to the Zionist slogan "A land without a people for a people without a land".

This 60th commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba or "Catastrophe" is particularly poignant because not only are the Palestinians physically split between the West Bank and Gaza, they are also divided ideologically and politically.

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