May 15 is the day we commemorate Al Nakba – the Catastrophe – a day marking a “continuous journey of pain, loss and injustice” for the Palestinian people. It marks the day that some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war. Palestinians were forced from their lands and homes due to military attacks by Zionist forces, supported by the British and U.S. governments. The Israeli Zionist forces attacked 774 cities and villages, and occupied 80 per cent of the Palestinian soil after killing nearly 15,000 Muslim and Christian civilians. Those who survived were forced to migrate to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighbouring countries, such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion of Palestinians by Israel on May 15, 1948 are not things of the past but are also of the present, because of the green light given by the big powers to the crime of genocide being committed by the occupier of Palestinian lands and homes.
May 15, Al Nakba Day, is living memory of these crimes, crimes which set the scene for today’s conditions where out of the global population of 14 million Palestinians, more than seven million live in exile, while two million live in the Gaza Strip, the world’s largest open-air prison, and another three million live in the occupied West Bank. Israeli occupation authorities are currently detaining about 4,900 Palestinian prisoners, including 160 children and 31 women. As of April this year alone, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been arrested and at least 84 were killed by Israeli occupation forces. In the same period last year, 22 Palestinians had been killed by occupation forces.
We condemn the relentless expansion of illegal settlements that continue the dispossession of the Palestinians begun in 1948, the attacks on the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the collective punishment of the Gaza Strip. This includes most recently the five consecutive days of Israeli air strikes from May 9 to 14, in which 33 Palestinians were killed, while 60 housing units — homes to 400 people — were destroyed.
We salute the Palestinian people’s unrelenting resistance and stand with them as the struggle for liberation continues.
All out to join the actions across the country condemning the crimes being committed against the Palestinian people which the world is witnessing and the violence and brutal attacks of the occupation forces.
Long Live the Palestinian Resistance!
Uphold the Palestinian People’s Right of Return!
Derry, Ireland, May 13, 2023
(Photos: TML, C. Escalante, Activestills, IPSC, Unite International, Jewish Voices for Peace-Los Angeles.)
cpcml.ca
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