The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Ramallah

Palestinians planned protests across the occupied territories on the 60th anniversary of the "catastrophe" of the birth of Israel on Thursday as the Jewish state's army went on high alert.

The commemoration of the Naqba, or "catastrophe"-the defeat of five invading Arab armies and the expulsion or flight of about 760,000 people-comes as US President George W. Bush was to address Israel's parliament. In the occupied West Bank and Arab east Jerusalem, activists plan to release 21,915 black balloons-one for each day since Israel's creation in 1948 -- to darken the skies over Jerusalem after a massive midday protest in Ramallah.

"Sixty years ago we were pushed into exodus and suffered an injustice. Today we call upon the world to give our people justice," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, himself a 1948 refugee, said this week. Those who were expelled from their homes or fled during the war that followed Israel's creation have since given rise to 4.5 million UN registered refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

For Palestinians the fate of the refugees lay at the core of the decades-old Middle East conflict and has bedevilled past peace efforts as Israel has refused to allow any of the refugees to return.