75 years of the Nakba, of the Palestinian people's struggle, and of international solidarity

For 75 years, the Palestinian people have suffered a catastrophic situation following the first war they suffered in 1947 and 1948, destroying hundreds of towns and villages, murdering thousands of Palestinians, and expelling more than 800,000, to make way for the creation of the Israeli state.

It is this initial catastrophe, the "Nakba", that Palestinians remembers every year on 15 May, a memory day that the United Nations General Assembly is joining this year, following a vote in November 2022.

It is this catastrophe that continues in different forms, multiple wars and successive expulsions that today make 10 million of the 14 million Palestinians in the world refugees or exiles, without the possibility of returning to their homes, despite the right granted by the United Nations resolution 194 of December 1948.

This catastrophe continues in the form of systematic apartheid-like discrimination (in Israel), annexation of territories (in East Jerusalem), military occupation, massive colonisation, destruction of homes, forced displacement and harassment of populations, theft of resources including water (in the West Bank), inhuman blockade (in the Gaza Strip)...

No just solution will be achieved until the Israeli state acknowledges its historical responsibility for the expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinian people. And such recognition will not be achieved until the Israeli state is punished for all the crimes it commits.

The International Labour Network of Solidarity and Struggles joins in commemorating this sad anniversary alongside its Palestinian comrades and their aspiration to see justice done. It calls for the respect of international law, starting with the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, sanctions against the Israeli state, and the self-determination of the Palestinian people regarding their future on their land.