'Our country died 60 years ago,' said Salah Zalatimo, 28.
During the 1948 War of Independence, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled or were driven from their homes - estimates range from 650,000 to 1 million. Palestinian demands to return with their descendants - at least 4 million people, by UN estimate - represent one of the thorniest issues in the
Zalatimo joined about 1,000 people who rallied at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza , across from UN headquarters, to call on the world body to help the Palestinians return to their homeland.
Under umbrellas in a driving rain, with the wind whipping their green, white and black Palestinian flags, the crowd marked the anniversary of the Nakba by dancing, singing and chanting, 'Free, free Palestine!'
'It was the death of a nation that coincided with the birth of a nation,' said Zalatimo, an American-born business consultant who said his family members were expelled from Israel in 1948, then again from the West Bank during the 1967 war.
'For us, it's been 60 years of tears and heartache and pain and homelessness,' he said.
Poet and writer Remy Kanazi, who lives in Queens, said his grandmother was forced out of her home inIsrael when she was pregnant with his mother.
'The Palestinians areIsrael 's indigenous population, and they're there to stay - and the Jews are there to stay,' Kanazi said. 'Any resolution has to be based on equality for both peoples. I believe in a one-state solution - one man, one vote.'
Under umbrellas in a driving rain, with the wind whipping their green, white and black Palestinian flags, the crowd marked the anniversary of the Nakba by dancing, singing and chanting, 'Free, free Palestine!'
'It was the death of a nation that coincided with the birth of a nation,' said Zalatimo, an American-born business consultant who said his family members were expelled from Israel in 1948, then again from the West Bank during the 1967 war.
'For us, it's been 60 years of tears and heartache and pain and homelessness,' he said.
Poet and writer Remy Kanazi, who lives in Queens, said his grandmother was forced out of her home in
'The Palestinians are