Israel's celebration of the 60th anniversary of its independence summons bitter memories about a historical tragedy that is organically linked to the birth of the Jewish state.
Palestinian Al Nakba, or catastrophe, is an unfolding event six decades after it was created. It is probably the only contemporary national disaster whose effects continue to evolve to date.
It is an ongoing tragedy that transcends generations and time; where survivors, millions of refugees, continue to live in "temporary" camps in Gaza Strip, the West Bank, neighbouring host countries and in the diaspora.
But worst of all, the people of Al Nakba, who mark the tragedy every year; continue to wait, as they did for decades, for the injustice that befell them and their ancestors to be reversed. They wait in vain.
It is ironic that countries and leaders are able to separate the two indivisible events; the birth of Israel and the debacle that befell the Palestinian people. This year Israel is receiving accolades and praise, but there is no solace to its victims.
The hypocrisy is mindboggling and insulting. To date the Palestinians are denied their inalienable right of self-determination and their cherished dream of setting up their own state on their national soil is as elusive as ever.
This could have been a landmark year for the Holy Land and its people. On the 60th anniversary of Israel we hear no words of remorse or contrition from the Jewish state or its allies and apologists.
An historical settlement of an existential conflict that consumed land, victims, resources and a good deal of international credibility is nowhere to be found.
The failure to resolve the Palestinian problem is a blemish that fouls all celebrations. To this date there are millions of refugees whose fate is as ambiguous as it was in 1948. The birth of Israel continues to claim a heavy price both in human and political dimensions.
It would be wrong to presume that Al Nakba can be disjoined from the history of Israel. Sixty years on the contrasts are still being made and the physical evidence of the duality of birth and tragedy are rampant. And six decades after the emergence of the Jewish entity, an existential anxiety is ripping through the Israeli society.
The division of Palestine into a state and a non-state is not marked by political borders, checkpoints, colonies, cities, refugee camps and ethnic enclaves.
Instead, it is a conundrum that has its roots deep in the ceremonial declaration of statehood at the expense of a demographic and political mess.
Israel's independence has been incomplete from the beginning and those who rally to praise the 60-year-old state forget that the seeds of its own instability were planted at the same time of its shameful debut.
The failure so far to resolve in a just and comprehensive way that effects of Al Nakba should worry Israelis more than any one. Loose ends as big and complicated as occupation, refugees and contested claims to land and symbols, should keep Israel's founders awake for another 60 years.
Palestine's calamity is many-sided. It is a cause with numerous patrons and none at all. The Arabs, who in many ways contributed to the legacy of Al Nakba, stand distanced and indifferent.
The international community which has put the credibility of its organisations, resolutions and conventions on the line has been check-mated by this aging conflict. The Palestinians themselves are divided and weak, and their national cause is slowly becoming marginalised.
But for millions of Arabs and Muslims, Al Nakba resides in the collective memory. It is etched into the conscience made even more vivid by the media which today is resurrecting archival material about the horrific events of that calamity.
Can Israel, the Arabs and the world move on without addressing the basic and fundamental issues relating to the Palestine Question?
At 60, Israel seems to have made a choice and is now trying to look to a future where the burden of its birth, the other side to its unveiling, can be disposed of without a sacrifice.
The Arab states have lost the political will, as well the horizon, to take the battle for Palestinian rights into new battlegrounds. And the world is tired of a problem that has defied all attempts to solve it.
But even so Al Nakba is an evolving tragedy that will come back to haunt all those who believed time will take care of it. In fact time has emerged as the conflict's worse enemy. The realities we see today in the Holy Land have doubled the risks and minimised the odds for a successful peaceful settlement.
We mark Al Nakba lest we forget the immensity of the crime, condensed into few paragraphs in resolution after resolution: 191, 242, 338...1401 and the saga continues.
Refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza stand like headstones in a deserted battlefield. From tents to shacks seems to be the evolutionary cycle of a crowded Palestinian refugee camp; a constant reminder that a temporary thing can last for a long time - a lifetime for many.
But beyond remembrance we must learn to pay a different homage to that haunting arena. The undercurrents that formed Al Nakba and made it an indelible part of our history continue today.
We should learn to move beyond the opprobrium of that cataclysmic event and begin to reverse its effects. The seeds of awakening should be scattered over the immense body of defeat because only then will hope become reality.
Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist based in Jordan.
