Today we join millions of Palestinians and millions of solidarity activists across the world in commemorating the Nakba.

We commemorate the Nakba of 1947-49, the act of mass ethnic cleansing that saw over 750,000 Palestinians driven from their homes into exile and over 500 towns and villages destroyed. We commemorate the ongoing Nakba, the 76 year long process of colonisation, dispossession, occupation and apartheid. We stand with Palestinians as they confront right now the darkest moment in this Nakba: the genocide unleashed by Israel in Gaza.

This is a moment above all others when, as a solidarity organisation, we need to platform Palestinian voices, reflect on Palestinian history, hear Palestinian stories.  

Click below to watch our video of Ghassan Abu Sitta telling his family’s Nakba story.

Today, as a Palestinian, I think of my own family story. My family were a wealthy Palestinian Christian family who owned many homes in Talbieh in West Jerusalem. Their home was a few miles from the village of Deir Yassin where, on April 9th 1948, Zionist militias massacred over 100 Palestinians including women and children, and paraded their bodies though the neighbourhood on the back of trucks. My family were forced to flee their homes and all of them, including my grandparents Shukry and Nazli Jamal (pictured below), died in exile. All of the family homes were stolen. One became the headquarters for a while of the Irgun, one of the militias which carried out the massacre of Deir Yassin.  

Tomorrow we will hold an online event for you to hear more Palestinian voices, reflecting on what the ongoing Nakba means to them. You can set a reminder to watch at 6PM on our YouTube channel here.  

Those speaking will also be reminding us as solidarity activists what they demand from us. This demand is unchanging. It is that we end the complicity of our government, public bodies, companies and corporations, without whose support Israel could not sustain its system of oppression. Right now this demand is echoing in towns and cities across the UK, led by PSC branches as they picket banks and arms factories. It is echoing across universities as students set up tents to demand divestment. It is being taken today to workplaces in the latest workplace day of action.

And on Saturday we will take it to the streets of the capital, when we again will march in our hundreds of thousands.  

This movement is surging across society but we need your help to transform this energy into greater political power. Our membership has doubled since October but we need it to grow further – please become a PSC member today.

Today as a Palestinian I thank you for everything that you do. Today I remain inspired by the sumud – the endurance and resilience of my fellow Palestinians. We know that the struggle is long but that we will prevail. Tomorrow will be a Palestinian day.  

Today I remember the words of the great Palestinian poet Remi Kenazi:

“We have not forgotten – we will not forget – Veins like roots of olive trees we will return- That is not a threat not a wish a hope or a dream but a promise”.

Onwards together to freedom, justice and equality.    

Ben Jamal

Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign