JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Virtual reality tours have replaced flag-waving rallies as Palestinians facing coronavirus restrictions create digital spaces to lament the loss of their physical homeland in 1948.
A man wearing a Virtual Reality (VR) device tries Palestine VR, a free app created by Salem Barahmeh (L) to give virtual tours of Palestinian towns and villages, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
Cellphone apps and Zoom video chats are among the other online tools Palestinians are using to mark the Nakba, or “Catastrophe”, when they and their descendants were forced from their villages or fled in the war that surrounded Israel’s creation.
The Nakba is generally marked on May 15 – the day after Israel’s Independence Day in the western calendar.
Last year Israeli troops wounded nearly 50 Palestinians during Nakba protests, but rallies were cancelled this year. In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…
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