‘Nakba never ended’: Tlaib introduces resolution on 77th anniversary of Palestinian expulsion 

On the establishment of Israel, over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes, villages, towns, and cities and made refugees inside Palestine, neighboring Arab countries, and elsewhere in an event known as the 'Nakba,' or catastrophe. In 1967, Israel expanded further into Palestinian land when it occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and about 300,000 more Palestinians were dispossessed. Within the boundaries of the Israeli state, Arabs became second-class citizens. U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (inset photo) has introduced a resolution marking the 77th anniversary of the event. | Main Photo: via Arab Center – Washington, D.C. / Tlaib photo: AP

WASHINGTON—On the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., introduced a resolution urging the U.S. government to officially recognize the decades-long displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people and the rights of Palestinian refugees.

“The Nakba never ended,” Tlaib said when announcing her resolution. “Today, we are witnessing the Israeli apartheid regime carry out genocide in Gaza.

“It is a campaign to erase Palestinians from existence,” she said. “War Criminal Netanyahu has threatened to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, annex the land, and permanently occupy it.”

Nakba—Arabic for “catastrophe”—refers to the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 to establish the state of Israel. The campaign was launched on May 15 that year, inking the date in infamy for generations of Palestinians.

In a premeditated military campaign, Zionist paramilitaries massacred thousands, destroyed hundreds of villages, and forcibly expelled 80% of the Palestinian population from their homeland. By the war’s end, Israel had seized 78% of historic Palestine; the remaining 22%, the West Bank and Gaza, were occupied in 1967 and remain under brutal Israeli military rule.

Tlaib—the only Palestinian-American in Congress—demands an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, reinstatement of funding for UNRWA (the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees), and recognition of the Nakba’s legacy of trauma and resistance.

Her resolution arrived as Israel continues to escalate its military activities in Gaza despite ongoing ceasefire negotiations and a show of good faith last week by Hamas with the release of a U.S.-Israeli soldier captured during the group’s assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. But the fascist far-right in Israel is vowing to prevent Palestinian statehood at all costs and shows no interest in a ceasefire or political solution.

Now, 77 years after their ordeal began, the Palestinian people find themselves in the midst of another brutal chapter of the ongoing Nakba. Since October 2023, they have endured one of the deadliest and most destructive military assaults in recent world history.

Over 50,000 people, the majority women and children, have been killed, while entire communities lie in ruins. Hospitals, schools, and refugee shelters have been targeted repeatedly, and the deliberate destruction of infrastructure has left the people struggling with a severe humanitarian crisis marked by a lack of food, clean water, and electricity.

Israel—with the full support and complicity of the United States (both the Biden and Trump administrations), the European Union, and their allies—continues to intensify its war on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank with total impunity. Their actions have violated international law, United Nations resolutions, and even the recent rulings of the International Court of Justice. The legitimate aspirations and rights to self-determination and a sovereign, independent Palestinian state are ignored.

Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud explained: “Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state isn’t just policy—it’s Zionist ideology. A sovereign Palestine with defined borders would expose Israel as a settler-colonial project, forcing it to confront its own illegitimacy.”

For more background, read the People’s World series, What is Zionism? by Hyman Lumer.

For decades, Israel has expanded its ethnic cleansing—stealing land in the West Bank, demolishing homes, and arming settlers who terrorize Palestinians. Meanwhile, the U.S. bankrolls this violence with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. The U.S. isn’t a bystander, Tlaib said, “it’s an accomplice.”

The Communist Party USA echoed this sentiment, declaring in a statement on May 15:

“We commemorate this day both by mourning the staggering loss of lives at the hands of Zionism, but also by honoring the Palestinian people’s struggle for their liberation. It is in their memory and by their example that we must also continue our fight here to end U.S. imperialism and support for Zionism, and to fight like hell for a free Palestine.”

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued a statement reiterating its “full and uncompromising solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just struggle.” The global labor body repeated its demand for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, the end of Israel’s occupation, an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and the right of return for those displaced over the decades.

As international condemnation of Israel’s war crimes and genocide spreads and the Palestinian solidarity movement continues to fight for justice, Tlaib’s resolution directly challenges Washington’s complicity.

“This immense trauma, including the loss of their loved ones and connections to the communities they grew up in, needs to be repaired. True peace must be built on justice,” she said Thursday. On an international scale, the U.S.’s political support for Israel is now a minority position, and Israel is also facing a losing battle for public approval.

But for Palestinians, the Nakba isn’t history—it’s a relentless present. And as Gaza burns, the world can no longer look away.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Cameron Harrison

Cameron Harrison is a trade union activist and organizer for the CPUSA Labor Commission. He also works as a Labor Education Coordinator for the People Before Profits Education Fund.