Nakba Day 2024

Joint Statement with:
Tzedek Collective
Jews Against the Occupation ‘48
Doykeit

May 15 is Nakba Day, a day that commemorates the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948. 

On this Nakba Day, Jewish collectives across the colony of so-called Australia state - unequivocally - our support for Palestinian freedom, liberation, and self-determination and mourn the Palestinian death, exile and trauma of the past 76 years.

The Nakba (“catastrophe”) did not start or end in 1948. Those who were forced to leave their homes by Israel’s brutal military force in 1948 and their descendants still remain displaced, whether in refugee camps, in Occupied Palestine, or in diaspora across the world. Palestinians have been denied the right of return to their homeland, denied compensation, and those who remain in Palestine continue to feel the wrath of Israel’s racist and oppressive rule. 

The Nakba continues today with ongoing massacres, use of torture, housing and policing policies that cause ethnic cleansing, genocidal attacks, apartheid and other human rights abuses. These have been the policies of the State of Israel since its beginning to ensure Jewish demographic dominance. Yet the barbarity of Israeli policy has only escalated, with the world currently watching Israel’s forced mass starvation, slaughter, and the complete destruction of the infrastructure for civilian life in Gaza. More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are displaced, a likely vast underestimate of over 35,000 people are dead, and countless others remain under the rubble. Israel’s actions are bolstered by continued impunity and support from much of the world. 

All this is done in the name of “Jewish safety”. We refute this claim. Palestinian safety is not a threat to Jewish life and many centuries saw the shared living of Muslims, Christians and Jews in Palestine. We reject Israel’s racist claim that Zionism is equivalent to Jewish identity. 

This month Israeli settlers have torched Palestinian villages and farmlands across Al-Mughayyir, Duma, Deir Dibwan, Beitin and Aqraba in acts that echo Zionist paramilitary attacks by the Irgun, Haganah and Lehi in the 1930s and 1940s. As the Israeli army forces Gazans to walk north and south, we see the Lydd Death March and Lydd massacre. As Israel razes Gaza, we see the Deir Yassin Massacre. Despite the erasure and denial of the history of the Nakba, Palestinians carry and share these histories.

We stand with Palestinians and allies across the world to call for an end to Israel’s genocide, an end to the Zionist regime and justice and freedom for all Palestinians.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

May 15 2024