On 15 May 2026, we commemorate the seventy-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba — that historic crime which constituted one of the most heinous acts of genocide in modern history. Backed directly by imperial colonial powers, Zionist militias occupied Palestinian land, forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of our people from their cities and villages, and destroyed more than five hundred Palestinian towns and villages in a systematic attempt to uproot an entire people from their homeland, erase their national identity, and obliterate their historical narrative and legitimate rights.
The Palestinian Nakba was not a passing event confined to the past; rather, it is an ongoing colonial project whose tools continue to evolve in different forms to this day — through military occupation, settlement expansion, blockade, forced displacement, systematic killing, arrests, and the continuous aggression against the Palestinian people both in their homeland and across the diaspora.
This year’s anniversary comes amid the continuing genocidal war being waged against our people in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of martyrs, wounded, and missing persons, alongside widespread destruction affecting hospitals, schools, refugee camps, infrastructure, and the basic necessities of life. At the same time, Jerusalem continues to face Judaization, settlement expansion in the West Bank is escalating, Palestinian areas are being fragmented by military checkpoints, and residents of refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm are being forcibly displaced — all amid disgraceful international complicity, and political, military, and media collusion by Western powers that continue to provide cover and protection for the colonial entity in Palestine.
We, in the Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe, as we mark this painful national anniversary, affirm that what the Palestinian people are enduring today is the direct continuation of the Nakba that began in 1948 and the clearest manifestation of the nature of the settler-colonial project based on exclusion, uprooting, and the systematic denial of our people’s national and historical rights.
We further reaffirm that the Palestinian people’s right to return to their homes and properties is an individual and collective right that is inalienable, imprescriptible, and non-negotiable. This right is guaranteed under international law and international resolutions, foremost among them United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. We also stress that the genuine path toward achieving historical justice lies in the complete dismantling of colonial structures and in enabling the Palestinian people to attain their national rights, foremost among them the right to establish their independent and fully sovereign state over the entirety of Palestinian territory.
Based on our national and humanitarian responsibility, we call for:
• Official recognition by European states of the Palestinian Nakba as an ongoing crime of genocide, and for these states to assume their legal, political, and moral responsibilities toward the rights of the Palestinian people. We further call for immediate action to stop the genocidal war and aggression against the Gaza Strip, to lift the blockade completely, and to ensure the unrestricted entry of humanitarian and relief aid.
• The imposition of political, economic, and military sanctions on the occupation entity, and the suspension of all forms of cooperation, partnership, and support that contribute to the continuation of crimes against the Palestinian people. We also call for serious efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable by supporting judicial proceedings before competent international and national courts.
• The protection of freedom of political action and solidarity with Palestine in Europe, the rejection of all attempts to criminalize voices and institutions supporting the rights of the Palestinian people, and the affirmation of the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to resist occupation by all means until they achieve freedom and fully restore their national rights.
On this national anniversary, the Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe extends its salute to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora, and to all free people around the world who continue to stand for the values of justice, freedom, and the rights of peoples despite campaigns of misinformation, repression, and targeting.
We also call upon Palestinian and Arab communities, grassroots and human rights organizations, and all supporters across European countries to continue popular, legal, and political mobilization, and to escalate campaigns of boycott and accountability in defense of our people’s rights, in pursuit of justice, and in rejection of the genocidal war against our people.
Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe
15 May 2026
