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77 Years of Ongoing Nakba: Resisting Ongoing Forcible Displacement
77 Years of Ongoing Nakba: Resisting Ongoing Forcible Displacement

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For decades, the Israeli regime has perpetuated the ongoing Nakba, based on three main pillars: colonization, forced displacement and transfer, and apartheid. This May, as we mark 77 years since the 1948 Nakba and as the genocide in Gaza enters its 19th month, the Israeli regime has been brutally advancing its forced displacement pillar: pushing for the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, escalating its suppression campaign in the West Bank (particularly in refugee camps), and enforcing an all-out elimination campaign against UNRWA. The Israeli regime’s actions, which have been enabled and bankrolled by Western, colonial states, have served to further widen the protection gap faced by Palestinian refugees. However, in the face of the denial of their inalienable rights and perpetual forced displacement, the Palestinian people remain steadfast and unwavering in their resistance to the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime.

 

The ongoing Nakba has resulted in the most protracted refugee population, with Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) now numbering 9.76 million, constituting 65.5 percent of the Palestinian people. Today, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—of whom 80 percent are 1948 refugees and their descendants—face the largest displacement since the 1948 Nakba: 1.9 million, making up 90 percent of the population, have been forcibly displaced multiple times and crammed into fragmented areas, comprising one-third of the Strip. The genocide in Gaza is not an aberration or an isolated event, but rather a component of the ongoing Nakba, resulting from 77 years of impunity, facilitating the Israeli regime’s ultimate goal to control the maximum amount of Palestinian land with the minimum number of Palestinians.

 

Critically, in addition to the genocide, the Israeli regime is advancing an agenda of ethnic cleansing of Gaza under the guise of ‘voluntary migration’—including the formal establishment of a ‘Bureau of Voluntary Migration.’ The US has echoed and supported this policy, calling for the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza into Jordan and Egypt, under the pretext of turning Gaza into the so-called 'Riviera of the Middle East.' These are calculated displacement plans designed to facilitate Israeli (and American) colonization of the Gaza Strip. The EU, France, Germany, the UK, and other states have resorted to shallow condemnations of the forced displacement of Palestinians. At the same time, reconstruction plans for Gaza overlook the ongoing Nakba and refugees’ right to reparations, reducing the Palestinian question to a mere humanitarian issue and promoting the two-state solution as a panacea.

 

Similarly, in the West Bank, the Israeli regime has stepped up its suppression campaign, with the intent to forcibly displace Palestinians and further expand colonial domination. It has tightened and increased movement restrictions, strangling the West Bank with checkpoints, and vehemently intensified land confiscations and colony construction, having already approved an all-time high of 15,190 colony units since the beginning of 2025. In refugee camps in the north of the West Bank, the Israeli regime has been carrying out and expanding “Operation Iron Wall” for more than 100 days, so far forcibly displacing over 40,000 Palestinians. The Israeli regime’s goals are clear: destroy refugee camps as the living symbols of the ongoing Nakba, suppress Palestinian resistance and its popular cradle, and erase Palestinian refugee rights.

 

In 1948 Palestine, the Israeli regime has continued to intensify repression to suppress dissent, by increasing mass arrests, bans on protests, punitive firings and suspensions, and invasive surveillance technologies designed to crack down on Palestinians.

 

The broader attack on the Palestinian refugee issue has long included an Israeli-led, decades-long campaign against UNRWA, in pursuit of its elimination. This campaign culminated in the Israeli regime’s official ban on UNRWA in late January 2025 and has been enforced brutally ever since. This is particularly detrimental, jeopardizing a vital support system for 5.9 million Palestine refugees across the region, including 3.7 million who depend on it for life-saving emergency aid. Palestinian refugees worldwide, particularly those in camps across Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, continue to face a significant protection gap. In Lebanon, this is compounded by a discriminatory legal framework that strips Palestinian refugees of their civil, social, and political rights—which has led 70 percent of Palestine refugees to be dependent on UNRWA cash assistance as a primary source of income.

 

Beyond the provision of aid and services, UNRWA plays a crucial role in the protection of the Palestine refugee question, as it is mandated to operate until the application of UNGA Resolution 194–i.e., the right to reparations (including return, property restitution,  compensation and non-repetition). Fundamentally and politically, the elimination of UNRWA is part of a broader campaign to eliminate the Palestinian refugee issue at large.

 

The ongoing Nakba has long been upheld by Western colonial powers that continue to provide the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime with unconditional support and sweeping impunity. In direct violation of their legal and moral obligations, these states have deepened their complicity through sustained political, economic, and military backing to the Israeli regime amid a genocide. On the international level, states have consistently endorsed and advanced the Israeli regime’s colonial agenda, sabotaging protection mechanisms for Palestinian refugees, vetoing resolutions, and paralyzing accountability mechanisms. States’ support for the Israeli regime also seeps into their policies at home, repressing, silencing, and criminalizing any and all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

 

In the face of more than 77 years of the ongoing Nakba, the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their resistance against the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime in pursuit of their liberation. Palestinian resistance in all of its forms, in Mandatory Palestine and abroad, has been met with overwhelming solidarity from people of conscience across the globe. The efforts, determination and humanity of the global solidarity movement stand in stark contrast with clear moral and legal bankruptcy of colonial states and their leaders.

 

Now, more than ever, a comprehensive rights-based decolonization framework that ensures the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to self-determination and return is the only solution to the ongoing Nakba. Palestinian resistance, combined with the sustained and strategic efforts of the global solidarity movement, is the only way through which the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip will end, the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime will be sanctioned and dismantled, and colonial states will be held accountable for their complicity.

 

A statement by BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights and the Global Palestinian Refugee Network (GPRN).

 

Endorsed by:

  1. ‘Aqbet Jaber Youth Center
  2. Aberystwyth Friends of Palestine
  3. Abna’ Al Ard – Sakhnin
  4. Abna’ Al Balad Movement
  5. Abna’ Al Batuf – ‘Arraba
  6. Abna’ Al Birweh Committee
  7. Addar for Culture and Arts
  8. Africa International Migration Agency-South Africa (AIMA-SA).
  9. Al ‘Ain Youth Center
  10. Al Aroub Women’s Center
  11. Al Awda Center
  12. Al Fawwar Youth Center
  13. Al Hadaf KC
  14. Al Houla Association
  15. Al Jalil Association
  16. Al Karmel Sport Club
  17. Al Majd Association
  18. Al Mustaqbal Association
  19. Al Qadisiya Scout Group
  20. Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
  21. Alternative Information Center
  22. Ansar Center
  23. APDHA-Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía
  24. Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance (APSA)
  25. Askar Women’s Center
  26. Asociacion Paz Con Dignidad
  27. Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
  28. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
  29. Australians for Palestine
  30. AWID (Association for Women's Rights in Development)
  31. Azanian Section of the Fourth International
  32. BADAYL
  33. Baladi Center for Culture and Arts
  34. BDS Almeria
  35. BDS Madrid
  36. BDS País Valencià
  37. BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories
  38. Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BA4P)
  39. Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  40. Cairdeas Falasteen Chonamara
  41. Cambridge Solidarity Campaign
  42. Campaign Against Misrepresentation in Public Affairs, Information and the News (CAMPAIN)
  43. Canada Palestine Association
  44. Canadian BDS Coalition & International BDS Allies
  45. Centre for Global Education
  46. Child Cultural Center
  47. Children and Youth Association
  48. Collectif Urgence Palestine
  49. Comhlamh Justice for Palestine
  50. Confédération Syndicale des Forces Productives  - COSYFOP
  51. Cultural Center for Children’s Development
  52. Disabled Rehabilitation Committee
  53. Edmonton Small Press Association
  54. Edward Said Forum
  55. EUROPALESTINE FRANCE
  56. Extinction Rebellion Gauteng
  57. Extinction Rebellion Vaal
  58. Fahmawi Coalition
  59. Fraternity Association for Social and Cultural Work
  60. Friedens-und Flüchtlingsbegleitgruppe Herford
  61. Fundación Atabal
  62. Galway Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  63. Global south united
  64. Good Shepherd Collective
  65. Haifa Cultural Center
  66. Handala Film Club - Freiburg
  67. Human Call Association
  68. Ibdaa’ Foundation for Child Development
  69. Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
  70. Indo Palestine Solidarity Network
  71. International Movement for a Just World
  72. International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD)
  73. Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  74. Jewish Network for Palestine
  75. Jewish Voice for Labour
  76. Jewish Voice for Peace
  77. Joint Advocacy Initiative
  78. Just Peace Advocates
  79. Juthour Center
  80. Kairos Palestine
  81. Kangaroo Sport Club
  82. KwaZulu-Natal Palestine Solidarity Forum
  83. KZN PAL ART
  84. la Vera con Palestina
  85. Lajee Celtic
  86. Lajee Center
  87. Ligue Algérienne de Défense des Droits de l'Homme
  88. Loud Jew Collective
  89. Majed Abu Sharar Media Foundation (MASMF)
  90. Makan Rights
  91. Malden for Palestine
  92. Migrantifa Berlin
  93. Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN)
  94. Muslim Counterpublics Lab
  95. Nación Andaluza
  96. National Action Front - Majd al-Krum
  97. National Democratic Alliance
  98. National Lawyers Guild
  99. Not in Our Name ASH
  100. Not to Forget
  101. Nuwat Association
  102. NZ All Out for Gaza
  103. Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
  104. Palestinarekiko Eranztzukizuna
  105. Palestine Charity Association for Women and Children
  106. Palestine Forum of New Zealand
  107. Palestine Solidarity Alliance
  108. Palestine Solidarity Alliance Youth league
  109. Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) - South Africa
  110. Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK
  111. Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA)
  112. Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
  113. Palestinian Awareness and Change Forum
  114. Palestinian Center for Arts and Heritage
  115. Palestinian Cultural Society of the University of Western Australia
  116. Palestinian Youth Forum
  117. Pax Christi Victoria
  118. Plataforma Córdoba con Palestina
  119. Plataforma Extremadura con Palestina
  120. Popular Aid Association for Relief and Development
  121. Popular Arts Center
  122. Portugal-Western Sahara Friendship Association
  123. Potch for Palestine
  124. Psychological and Social Development Association
  125. Py placements
  126. Red Universitaria por Palestina (RUxP) nodo AUPA Alicante
  127. Red Universitaria por Palestina (RuxP) Nodo UIB
  128. Red Universitaria por Palestina (RUxP) Nodo Universidad de Zaragoza
  129. Red Universitaria por Palestina (RuxP) Nodo Universitat de València
  130. Refugee Rights Center – Aidoun
  131. Sare Lesbianista
  132. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
  133. Serapeng sa Dithlare and Environment NPC
  134. Sexual Rights Initiative
  135. Sheffield HW 4 Palestine
  136. Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
  137. Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange
  138. Sheffield PSC
  139. SJP Amsterdam
  140. Social Media Center – AJYAL
  141. Social Rehabilitation Association
  142. Social Rehabilitation Association – Al Far’a Refugee Camp
  143. Social Rehabilitation Center
  144. Solidaridad para el Desarrollo y la Paz (SODePAZ)
  145. Solidarity Rising
  146. South Africa Palestine Movement
  147. South African BDS Coalition
  148. TADAMON
  149. The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
  150. The Palestinian Forum for Chess
  151. The Popular Theatre
  152. The RedAnt Collective
  153. The Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA)
  154. Trinity College Dublin Students' Union/ Aontas Mac Léinn Choláiste na Tríonóide Mc
  155. Tulkarem Youth Center
  156. Tulkarem Youth Center
  157. Tzedek Collective
  158. Union of Students in Ireland
  159. Visualizing Palestine
  160. Women’s Activity Center
  161. Women’s Program Center
  162. Workers & Socialist Party (WASP)
  163. Yafa Cultural Center
  164. Young Christian Students Movement South Africa
  165. Youth Development Center