Seventy years of Israel’s independence is cause for celebration in Israel and a reason for mourning in the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian mass demonstrations along the Gaza fence will come to a climax May 14, just one day before the Palestinians mark Nakba Day — the establishment of Israel that the Palestinians see as a national catastrophe. On that day, the United States is expected to move its embassy to Jerusalem; and it is on that day that West Bankers are expected to take to the streets. Terror attacks against Israel could also take place.

A senior PLO official close to President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity about the importance of these days, saying, “Nakba Day always reminds us of our tragic fate, how we lost our land, the Deir Yassin massacre [in 1948, during Israel’s independence war] and above all the tragedy of our refugees dispersed around the world. From 1988 to 1993, our leader Chairman Yasser Arafat understood that the Palestinian narrative had to be rectified. That Palestinian independence at last would happen alongside Israel, and not replacing it.”

The official explained that the Oslo Accord emerged from that recognition. For the sake of statehood and peace, the Palestinians were ready to relinquish 75% of mandatory Palestine to Israel, provided they could establish an independent state on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital. In Palestinian eyes, that was a historical compromise, recognized by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and US President Bill Clinton. Yet since 1996, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power, Israel reneged on the Oslo Accord and began to implement extensive settlement expansion and annexationist policies. The official said that Israel forces the Palestinians into a stateless existence, arguing that Israel’s legitimacy is the result of the Holocaust in Europe.