AHRC Observes Palestinian Nakba/Catastrophe Day, Renews Call For Justice, And Hands Off Rafah:
On May 15, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted UN Resolution 181 that divided mandatory Palestine into two states- Arab and Jewish. Those who pushed for the partition of Palestine thought they are solving the conflict. Far from it, they planted the seeds for decades of conflict because Israel had no intention of sharing Palestine with its Indigenous inhabitants. Theodore Herzl’s diary indicated intent on ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of 70,000 Palestinians in 1948 made this intent a reality.
The Palestinian refugee problem is not the result of a natural disaster. It was a premeditated crime. Millions of refugees and their descendants live in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. In fact, Gaza is a high-density area because 80% of its people are Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed from areas that became part of Israel.
On 1949, UNRWA was established to provide the essential humanitarian health, educational and development aid. Since then, UNRWA has been performing the duties of a national government providing all kinds of medical, educational, nutritional support as well as employment training. UNRWA has been essential for the very survival of the Palestinians. Israel robbed them of everything. UNRWA helped them survive in forced exile.
UN resolutions declared Israel’s occupation illegal and must end. Israel ignored all UN resolutions, and the US veto was deployed tens of times to shield Israel from accountability for its occupation and its ongoing war crimes and human rights violations.
In 2024, Israel used the October 7 attack as a pretext to ethnically cleanse Gaza. Israel called its war on Gaza a second war of independence indicating that it intends to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
The UN and international law lay out a roadmap for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The conflict is not complicated and is not intractable. The refugees have the right of return enshrined in international law and UN resolutions. The two-state solution is seen by most of the world as the way to resolve the conflict. Israel rejects, the US refuses to pressure Israel. The result is the cycles of violence that have culminated in the Gaza genocide.
76 years later, and despite the genocide and the massive Palestinian losses, there is hope for the Palestinians today more than ever. In the West, especially in the US, we see a tidal wave of generational change as to Israel. American students are against the unlimited American support of Israel. There is a generation politically socialized in an environment where Israel has been committing live- streamed genocide.
“The Nakba is not a single event, it is a long ongoing process,” said Imad Hamad, AHRC Executive Director. “It’s never too late to do the right thing, there has been too much Palestinian suffering,” added Hamad.