As Hossam Ezzedine, the terror apologist for AFP, describes it:
Palestinians marked the worst day in their history, determined to lift damaging economic sanctions and warning that Israeli unilateralism could kill off a two-state solution.Indeed, it was the worst day of their history. (Notwithstanding that they weren't called "Palestinians" for at least 15 years afterwards...)
Because what exactly happened in May of 1948? Instead of accepting a Palestinian Arab state that the UN offered, they decided to try to wipe out the Jews.
Of course it was a disaster! They chose wrong and lost!
In 1948 there could have been a Palestinian Arab state with its own flag, currency, and international legitimacy. If they would have chosen peace with Israel they would have jobs, a good economy, oceanfront property, and an incredibly tiny Jewish state next door.
So, in commemoration of the incredibly bigoted and stupid move that their forefathers chose, they celebrate the annual event of the disaster of their own making. They wave flags and shout empty slogans and threaten the West and make friends with Iran and Syria and support terrorists.
And here's the funniest part - they could have a state today! They could declare a Palestinian Arab state in Gaza and easily get more than half the UN to recognize them as a legitimate state - any hour of any day they choose. They could invite the gigantic Palestinian "diaspora" to help them build their country in the areas that Israel no longer enters. They could be preparing the institutions needed to run their state. It is all there for the asking.
After all, the very day that Britain left Palestine was the day the Israel declared itself independent. It isn't that hard.
But evidently it is preferable to complain about a naqba rather than do anything about it.
Because they do have a currency today - and that currency is whining.
They have learned that they get more attention by whining to the world about their self-imposed catastrophe than by doing something about it. They whine about occupation, they whine about having no money, they whine about Israelis defending themselves, they whine about a Jewish mom in Samaria building a new bathroom on her house. They love when their kids get killed, because a funeral is worth many, many whines.
Complaining is its own reward. It gets results - nations throw money at the whiners, at least at whiners about Israel.
So we will be seeing many, many more decades of Naqba celebrations. You can whine more easily about catastrophes that you pretend happened to you than about the hard work you refuse to do. And it is hard to teach an entire generation how to work when they have been raised to whine.