SAN FRANCISCO – Today, May 15, is the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, the day that changed the Palestinian people's history forever. The Nakbah (al-Nakbah; "catastrophe") marks the forced expulsion, dispossession, and displacement of the majority of indigenous Christians and Muslims, over 750,000 people from Palestine during the 1948 war. In reality, the Nakba has since solidified into an Israeli campaign of terror, ethnic segregation, land confiscations, and destruction of villages for Jewish settlement leading to a vanishing Palestine with over 7 million Palestinians living as refugees today.

Israel's decades-long land annexations and settlements are a violation of human rights and international law according to numerous UN resolutions and prevailing international legal opinion. In April 2021, Human Rights Watch joined hundreds of other international human rights organizations to condemn Israel for "crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution". 

This week amid widespread international demands for ceasing violence, Israeli police and armed settlers targeted the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for illegal evictions of Palestinians, and when faced with the community's resistance, they took to the streets to terrorize the residents. Israeli forces also repeatedly raidedthe holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque, violently attacking Palestinian worshippers with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas, while the Israeli military has continued to rain airstrikes and artillery shells in Gaza.

Despite these violations of human rights by Israel, the U.S. government continues to provide it unconditional support and financial aid. The current $3.8 Billion dollar package of aid, authorized in 2016 as a 10-year "memorandum of understanding" between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, is staunchly defended by Washington lawmakers.

Today we hear the international community rise in condemnation of the U.S.-funded Israeli illegal occupation, displacement, and violations of the Palestinians' human rights.