On 15 May 2026, we commemorate the seventy-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian \u200eNakba \u2014 that historic crime which constituted one of the most heinous acts of \u200egenocide in modern history. Backed directly by imperial colonial powers, Zionist \u200emilitias occupied Palestinian land, forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of our \u200epeople from their cities and villages, and destroyed more than five hundred \u200ePalestinian towns and villages in a systematic attempt to uproot an entire people from \u200etheir homeland, erase their national identity, and obliterate their historical narrative \u200eand legitimate rights.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Palestinian Nakba was not a passing event confined to the past; rather, it is an \u200eongoing colonial project whose tools continue to evolve in different forms to this day \u200e\u200e\u2014 through military occupation, settlement expansion, blockade, forced displacement, \u200esystematic killing, arrests, and the continuous aggression against the Palestinian people \u200eboth in their homeland and across the diaspora.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s anniversary comes amid the continuing genocidal war being waged against \u200eour people in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, which has resulted in hundreds of \u200ethousands of martyrs, wounded, and missing persons, alongside widespread \u200edestruction affecting hospitals, schools, refugee camps, infrastructure, and the basic \u200enecessities of life. At the same time, Jerusalem continues to face Judaization, \u200esettlement expansion in the West Bank is escalating, Palestinian areas are being \u200efragmented by military checkpoints, and residents of refugee camps in Jenin and \u200eTulkarm are being forcibly displaced \u2014 all amid disgraceful international complicity, \u200eand political, military, and media collusion by Western powers that continue to \u200eprovide cover and protection for the colonial entity in Palestine.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We, in the Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe, as we mark \u200ethis painful national anniversary, affirm that what the Palestinian people are enduring \u200etoday is the direct continuation of the Nakba that began in 1948 and the clearest \u200emanifestation of the nature of the settler-colonial project based on exclusion, \u200euprooting, and the systematic denial of our people\u2019s national and historical rights.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We further reaffirm that the Palestinian people\u2019s right to return to their homes and \u200eproperties is an individual and collective right that is inalienable, imprescriptible, and \u200enon-negotiable. This right is guaranteed under international law and international \u200eresolutions, foremost among them United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. \u200eWe also stress that the genuine path toward achieving historical justice lies in the \u200ecomplete dismantling of colonial structures and in enabling the Palestinian people to \u200eattain their national rights, foremost among them the right to establish their \u200eindependent and fully sovereign state over the entirety of Palestinian territory.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Based on our national and humanitarian responsibility, we call for:\u200e
\u2022 Official recognition by European states of the Palestinian Nakba as an ongoing \u200ecrime of genocide, and for these states to assume their legal, political, and \u200emoral responsibilities toward the rights of the Palestinian people. We further \u200ecall for immediate action to stop the genocidal war and aggression against the \u200eGaza Strip, to lift the blockade completely, and to ensure the unrestricted \u200eentry of humanitarian and relief aid. \u200e
\u2022 The imposition of political, economic, and military sanctions on the occupation \u200eentity, and the suspension of all forms of cooperation, partnership, and support \u200ethat contribute to the continuation of crimes against the Palestinian people. We \u200ealso call for serious efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes and crimes \u200eagainst humanity accountable by supporting judicial proceedings before \u200ecompetent international and national courts. \u200e
\u2022 The protection of freedom of political action and solidarity with Palestine in \u200eEurope, the rejection of all attempts to criminalize voices and institutions \u200esupporting the rights of the Palestinian people, and the affirmation of the \u200ePalestinian people\u2019s legitimate right to resist occupation by all means until they \u200eachieve freedom and fully restore their national rights. \u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On this national anniversary, the Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in \u200eEurope extends its salute to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora, and to \u200eall free people around the world who continue to stand for the values of justice, \u200efreedom, and the rights of peoples despite campaigns of misinformation, repression, \u200eand targeting.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also call upon Palestinian and Arab communities, grassroots and human rights \u200eorganizations, and all supporters across European countries to continue popular, legal, \u200eand political mobilization, and to escalate campaigns of boycott and accountability in \u200edefense of our people\u2019s rights, in pursuit of justice, and in rejection of the genocidal \u200ewar against our people.\u200e<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe
\u200e15 May 2026\u200e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 15 May 2026, we commemorate the seventy-eighth anniversary of the Palestinian \u200eNakba \u2014 that historic crime which constituted one of the most heinous acts of \u200egenocide in modern history. Backed directly by imperial colonial powers, Zionist \u200emilitias occupied Palestinian land, forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of our \u200epeople from their cities and villages, and destroyed more than five hundred \u200ePalestinian towns and villages in a systematic attempt to uproot an entire people from \u200etheir homeland, erase their national identity, and obliterate their historical narrative \u200eand legitimate rights.\u200e The Palestinian Nakba was not a passing event confined to the past; rather, it is an \u200eongoing colonial project whose tools continue to evolve in different forms to this day \u200e\u200e\u2014 through military occupation, settlement expansion, blockade, forced displacement, \u200esystematic killing, arrests, and the continuous aggression against the Palestinian people \u200eboth in their homeland and across the diaspora.\u200e This year\u2019s anniversary comes amid the continuing genocidal war being waged against \u200eour people in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, which has resulted in hundreds of \u200ethousands of martyrs, wounded, and missing persons, alongside widespread \u200edestruction affecting hospitals, schools, refugee camps, infrastructure, and the basic \u200enecessities of life. At the same time, Jerusalem …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n