74 Years Since the “Catastrophe of Palestine” and the Suffering Continues

May 15, 2022

The Palestinian people commemorate today, May 15, the 74^th anniversary of its catastrophe… the catastrophe of people, land, and human values. 74 years ago, Zionist gangs committed the worst massacres against Palestinians, confiscated their ancestral land, and expelled them to refugee camps in one of the most atrocious crimes in modern history.

The Palestinian Nakba is a catastrophe to all human values as well. Although 74 years have passed since the “crime of the century”, the murderer is still free-hand, killing, plundering, practicing land theft, and building illegal settlements. On the other hand, the victims are still living in refugee camps that lack the minimum standards of dignified human living.

This year, The Nakba anniversary coincides with the assassination of Palestinian Journalist “Shireen Abu Akleh” who paid, in blood, the bill for truth, reminding us that this criminal occupation has no inhibitions. The murder of “Shireen” embodies the suffering of the Palestinian people, as the occupation expects to kill them without noise. The crime against “Shireen” is an extension of the suffering of her beloved city, Jerusalem, which is witnessing one of the fiercest attacks in its history.

The anniversary of Nakba comes this year as Al-Aqsa Mosque is stormed by groups of extremist settlers, protected by the occupation police, in an attempt to force temporal and spatial division of the mosque, without any consideration to the feelings of millions of Muslims around the world, or attention to the consequences of their foolish acts on peace and stability of the region.

On the Nakba anniversary, we stress that our catastrophe wouldn’t have lasted 74 years without the silence and lack of action of the international community. Therefore, we once again repeat our call to the international community to hold the occupation accountable for its crimes, end the suffering of our people, and grant our people the right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as capital.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Gaza – Palestine