Join us to mark 76 years of the Nakba and to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.
Nakba Day marks the devastation of the Palestinian homeland in 1948 through ethnic cleansing and expulsion of a majority of Palestinian people. The Nakba, or the Catastrophe, is commemorated on May 15th of each year through demonstrations, strikes, protests and by memorializing the names of villages that were uprooted or destroyed. Nakba Day is about resisting expulsion and erasure.
Since October 7, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis and over 14,000 of these are children. The indiscriminate nature of Israeli occupation attacks has led to widespread civilian casualties but with medical infrastructure destroyed, Gazans suffer from a severe lack of access to adequate medical care, which exacerbates their suffering. In the West Bank, settlers continue to violently drive Palestinians out of their homes. Universities, schools, historical sites and archives have been violently erased. Mass graves have been recently found with nearly 400 bodies. 85% of Gaza’s population, around 1.93 million individuals, have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
Today, as we continue to witness another Nakba, the world rises up on every continent, including protest encampments at more than 180 university campuses around the world. (Visit a map of encampments here.)
This Nakba Day, we urge you to join in this resistance:
*Join the strike on May 15 and withdraw all work that is not for Palestine
*Honor the memory of the Nakba
Read, recite, & remember the names of the 531 Palestinian towns and villages depopulated or erased in 1948.
*Support an encampment near you
Be there to ensure safety in numbers. Donate to bail funds for those unjustly arrested. Speak with protesters about their needs and supply food, sanitation and medicines. Raise awareness about your local encampments within your immediate community and refuse silence.
*Boycott the war machine
*Call out the media
Write to your local media outlets and pressure them to insist on coverage of unfolding events in Palestine. Insist that they use Palestinian sources and center Palestinian lives. Ask that they use active language when describing the killings of Palestinians. Demand that the media work to interrogate and analyze the intentions behind their government’s actions, and attempt to understand the workings of international law. Ask the media to report on protests, collective actions and boycott movements.
To Support this Action
De/Colonizer Map has put together what seems to be the most complete map of Palestinian towns and villages erased in 1948. Next week, we will also share poems about the Nakba for you to read and share. Please download, print, and share these. If you’re a bookseller, provide free copies wherever you’re selling books and magazines.
If you’re a publisher, ask your authors and readers to join in to read and share on their social media accounts. Ask your authors to send a message of support to their local encampment.
Organize your own actions for May 15 and events for the week of May 13-21. Let us know about them so we can share and amplify.
Share on your social media accounts using: #EndtheNakba
If you’re a musician, sing a poem for Nakba Day. If you’re an artist, make art for the Nakba Day. Bring it into your creative practice.
Forthcoming evens:
New York City – Nakba Then & Now, Refuse Silence (May 15)
Also, Agitate & Advocate:
Be in the streets; attend demonstrations, rallies, and other Palestinian solidarity events.
Disrupt business as usual. Record and share your readings on social media.
Write to and call your representatives in government to tell them that you demand they place pressures on Israel to end the killing, end the occupation, and allow the Palestinian people their rights and freedoms. Let them know that you need action and policy changes, not just words. If your government is a signatory to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, demand that they fulfill their commitment and support South Africa’s efforts at the ICJ.
Refuse the silencing of Palestinian voices through the Israeli occupation and genocide, and refuse the silencing of those who speak out against the genocide and occupation through censorship and other means.
Amplify Palestinians, and Palestinians in Gaza especially, through online platforms, and engage as much as possible with their content in order to boost visibility.
Publishers for Palestine 