Friday, 15 May, marked 78 years since the Nakba (the Catastrophe) – the forced uprooting of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands in 1948. More than 70 massacres were committed, approximately 15,000 people were killed, and over 500 villages were depopulated and destroyed.
My father prepared a small bag where we put some basic stuff, believing that we would return after a few days. I took my school bag and my ball. We left everything else behind — our land, our home, our money and our dreams. We even left ourselves there, clinging to the hope that we will return one day.
— Hassan al-Deryawi, who was eight years old when his family was expelled from Haifa during the Nakba.
But the Nakba did not end in 1948. It continues today through the ongoing colonization of Palestine. In Gaza, we continue to witness genocide and destruction, as the people of Gaza remain under blockade, with aid and rebuilding denied by Israel. Here, Israel has constructed a “Yellow Line”: a military zone set by Israel after the ceasefire agreement encompassing more than 58 percent of Gaza, including the cities of Rafah in the south and Beit Hanoun in the north. During a visit to Gaza in December 2025, Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said unequivocally that the Yellow Line is “a new border line.”
I am an old man, 91 years old, suffering from diseases, but my testament to my children and grandchildren is to never leave Gaza. We cannot leave Gaza, and we cannot migrate again. In 1948, we left our homes out of fear of death. After nearly eight months of war on Gaza in 2023 and 2024, we will stay on our land until death.
— Mohammed Abdul Jabbar Abu Seif, a resident of Gaza who was displaced at age 15 during the Nakba of 1948.
In the West Bank, Israeli annexation is progressing at a rate unseen since 1967 – with the number of settlements rising by nearly 50 percent in three years, and settler attacks averaging five per day. In occupied East Jerusalem, the Nakba is playing out in real time. In al-Bustan, a neighbourhood in Silwan, Israeli authorities are forcing out 1,500 Palestinians to build a biblical theme park – issuing demolition orders and imposing fines so steep that families are tearing down their own homes with their own hands, their children bringing hammers to help. More than 50 homes have been demolished since October 7, 2023.
“The bulldozers come with a host of soldiers like they are conquering the land, and we can’t stand in front of them and stop them… All we can do is use the legal system, call on the international community to pressure Israel and wait for our day.” says Fakhri Abu Diab, an Al-Bustan resident whose home was destroyed. “I was born in my house. And my house was my father’s house, and before that, my grandfather’s house. I can still smell my mother in the room where I was born.”
As we witness Israel’s application of annexation plans in the occupied West Bank, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the depopulation and destruction of villages in southern Lebanon, it is clear that the Nakba which began on May 15, 1948 has never ended. To this day, over 6 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants have been denied their Right to Return – enshrined in United Nations Resolution 194 since 1948.
As we mark 78 years of Nakba, we call on the Canadian government to end its complicity in Israeli occupation and apartheid. Canada’s complicity in the Nakba stretches back to its inception. Lester B. Pearson’s diplomatic role in the partition of Historic Palestine earned him the nickname “the Balfour of Canada.” Roughly 300 Canadian veterans of World War II fought for Zionist militias as part of what were known as the Machal Volunteers – just as Canadians serve in the Israeli military in Gaza today.
78 years later, Canada’s position has not changed. This is clear in the refusal to include Nakba denial as a form of anti-Palestinian racism in Canada’s anti-racism strategy of 2025. This refusal not only erases the legal and moral basis for Palestinian refugees and their descendants for return, but came at a time where the world watched a genocide unfold in Gaza in real time – a genocide which Canada continued to arm. While Canadians from all walks of life expressed support for the Palestinian people, Canada looked away.
On this Nakba Day, we stand with the Palestinian people – in memory of those who were killed, in solidarity with those who were displaced and those who continue to remain steadfast, and in support of all Palestinians who dream of return. While some may believe that genocide has ended, the Nakba continues, demanding an unwavering commitment to freedom, justice, the right of return, and an end to the ongoing Nakba.