For the second year in a row, Palestinians gathered at City Hall in Paterson on Sunday to raise their flag, another small step in their long and relentless drive for statehood.
The Palestinian national anthem played and a crowd of about 200 cheered as Mayor Jeffery Jones hoisted the red, black, white and green flag. A local tradition had been born with the second annual flag-raising, but there remains a difficult road to Palestinian statehood after peace talks with Israel broke down last month.
“We can assure you we will not get tired,” said Somaia Barghougt, Palestine’s senior adviser to the United Nations, “until Palestine is a free, independent and democratic state.”
The flag-raising was sponsored by the Paterson-based Arab American Civic Organization and coincided with Nakba Day, which Palestinians observe each May 15. Nakba in Arabic means “catastrophe,” and refers to the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians after Arabic forces from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attacked Israel after the Jewish state declared its independence in mid-May1948.
Several speakers compared the struggle for Palestinian statehood to that of America’s war for independence from Britain.
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