Children carry placards bearing the names of destroyed villages as they take part in the annual march to mark the Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1948. In May 2006 the scene of the procession was Umm al-Zinat, 10 miles south-east of Haifa. Its 1,500 inhabitants were ethnically cleansed from the village on 15 May 1948, a few hours after Israel declared independence.