Nakba Day

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Nakba Day (Arabic: يوم النكبة Yawm an-Nakbah, meaning "day of the catastrophe") is an annual day of commemoration for the Palestinian people of the displacement that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948. It is generally held every May 15, the day after the Gregorian calendar date for Israel's Independence.

During the 1948 Palestine War, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled, and hundreds of Palestinian villages were depopulated and destroyed. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. This dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the castastrope," or "the disaster."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba_Day

Often this event is associated with protests in support of Palestinian liberation and justice.

In the News:

Palestinian dies from gunshot wounds
More protests in East Jerusalem after seventeen-year-old was shot ahead of "Nakba Day".

Israeli police arrested 34 on Friday during violent clashes ahead of 'Nakba Day' [Reuters] A Palestinian teen has died from gunfire during Friday's clashes in East Jerusalem, as Israeli police made heavy deployments in preparation for upcoming protests marking the annual Palestinian day of mourning over the 1948 creation of Israel.
Seventeen-year-old Morad Ayyash died early on Saturday after being shot in the shoulder in the neighbourhood of Silwan, Israeli police said.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the source of gunfire was unclear and that the police were investigating, while a relative told AFP that a Jewish settler had shot Ayyash in the stomach.
Local sources in Silwan told Al Jazeera that only tear gas was used in the clashes that erupted between Palestinian boys and the Israeli police on Friday.
Ayyash was shot in random firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish settlers living in Beit Yonatan, they said....

Palestinian dies from gunshot wounds - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

A boy holds a Palestinian flag during Friday prayers at Tahrir Square in Cairo May 13, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany


As hundreds of activists prepare to send a convoy to demonstrate at Egypt's border crossing with Gaza in Rafah, Egyptian authorities are on high alert.
According to AFP, Egyptian authorities on Friday blocked access to the Sinai peninsula, where it stepped up security to prevent the planned march from Cairo to Gaza.
The march is planned to leave from Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Saturday to reach Rafah on Sunday. It is calling for the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their land and demanding that Egyptian authorities release all Palestinian prisoners in Egypt.
The march is planned to reach the Gaza borders on Nakba Day (15 May), the day in which Palestinians were forcibly evicted from their land and homes to establish the state of Israel....

Egypt gets ready for Palestinian Nakba Day - Politics - Egypt - Ahram Online