Seventy-five years ago, the Palestinian people experienced a great catastrophe – the Nakba – an
event so devastating that its repercussions continue until this day.
In 1948, the State of Israel was established. To accomplish this, more than 750,000 Palestinians were
expelled, forced by violence, fear, or intimidation to flee their homes. Over 400 Palestinian towns
and villages were intentionally destroyed by the militias that would later become the Israeli Defense
Forces. Thousands more became Internally Displaced People within the newly created State of
Israel. All were and continue to be denied their right to return in violation of UN Resolution 194 and
Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Generations of Palestinian refugees were
created, many still clutching their house keys and Ottoman documents of land ownership.
May 15th is the day the Nakba is mournfully commemorated with 1948 seen as the pivotal year
when the destruction, erasure, and settler-colonisation of Palestine was most aggressively
executed. However, what reached its zenith between 1947 and 1949 had been proceeded by many
years of a slow and methodical effort to accomplish the goal of creating a Jewish State in Palestine.
Emboldened by the 1917 Balfour Declaration, crafted to serve the geopolitical interests of the day,
this sixty-seven-word letter gave legitimacy to that vision, effectively giving one people’s land to
another.
A seminal event in the history of the Palestinian people, the Nakba is often ignored, given a cursory
mention, or denied. Yet, As Yara Hawari, senior analyst at Al-Shabaka, has stated it is “the single
event that connects all Palestinians to a specific point in history. Whether living in exile as refugees,
as nominal citizens of Israel, under military occupation in the West Bank, or under siege in Gaza”.1
Like all atrocities, the Nakba must be recognized for the cataclysmic event it was and continues to
be. The devastation inflicted upon an entire population cannot be minimized. To do so dehumanizes
1 Yara Hawari, “Palestine Sine Tempore?” Rethinking History 22, no 4 (2018): 167
1 Greg Shupak, “Erasing the Nakba, Upholding Apartheid” Institute of Palestine Studies, Issue no. 8 (2022): 9
the pain of millions of people, “suggesting that Palestinians are not worthy of having crimes
committed against them acknowledged and mourned”.2
As Palestinians commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba, it is crucial to see, as they
do, that the Nakba was not solely a historical milestone but a never-ending scourge. Today, the
trauma of the Nakba continues with every eviction order, home or school demolition, military
incursion into a village, refugee camp, or place of worship, destruction of treasured ancient olive
trees and confiscation of land and every child or political prisoner held in the black hole of
administrative detention.
A delegation of Pax Christi International members recently traveled to the Holy Land. What they
witnessed and heard constituted the unmistakable results of the ongoing Nakba.
They witnessed the suffering of Palestinians who have lived for nearly six decades under a brutal
Israeli military occupation. They saw first-hand the expansive Israeli settlements and numerous
outposts, all illegal under international law, that continue to grow, consuming more and more
Palestinian land. They stood next to the towering wall, which fragments Palestinian land into
enclaves, cutting Palestinians off from each other and their land. They heard accounts of increasing
violent settler attacks, often perpetrated under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers. They walked
through a demolished home – one of the thousands crushed under Israeli bulldozers in pursuit of
Israeli expansion in the West Bank. They spoke with Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem who are
threatened with eviction to enable more settlers to reside in what was to be the capital of the State
of Palestine. They ate with a Bedouin family whose whole community may soon be forcibly expelled.
They conferred with the Latin Patriarchs, past and present, and other religious leaders, all of whom
expressed deep concern for the survival of the 2000-year-old Christian community.
We know that those in key leadership positions who permit such a situation to continue, are aware
of the devastating impact and sordid reality Palestinians face every day. We are compelled to ask –
when will they put aside meaningless comments of concern and act to bring freedom, justice, and
dignity to the Palestinian people as they have promised.
On this sombre day, Pax Christi International calls on the international community to demand an
end to the relentless ongoing Nakba. Without deliberate actions to halt the expansion of
settlements, the military occupation of the West Bank, and the stranglehold siege of Gaza, the
Palestinian people will not be able to wake from the nightmare they have been living for over seven
decades. Recognition of the past and accountability for Israel’s continued efforts to rid the land
between the river and the sea of its indigenous people are crucial steps to finally bringing peace
with justice and dignity to all those living in the Holy Land.