Palestine calls on international community to recognize Nakba as 'crime of ethnic cleansing'

Palestine has called on the international community to recognize the 1948 Nakba as a "crime of ethnic cleansing" committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, stressing that the Nakba "is still ongoing." The call came in a statement issued on Thursday by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry on the eve of the annual commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba on May 15.

Call for classification

The ministry urged the international community to classify the Nakba as a "crime of ethnic cleansing" and work toward "redressing its consequences and achieving the legitimate and inalienable rights" of the Palestinian people. It said those rights include "self-determination and independence for the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, as well as the right of return and compensation for refugees."

Nakba definition

Palestinians use the term "Nakba" (catastrophe) to describe the displacement of 957,000 Palestinians out of 1.4 million who lived in about 1,300 towns and villages in 1948, coinciding with the establishment of Israel on Palestinian land. The ministry reminded the international community of its responsibilities, including recognizing the Nakba as "a crime against humanity that cannot be denied, justified, or defended under any pretext."

Ongoing crime

It stressed that "the Nakba is not merely a historical tragedy but an ongoing crime," adding that it is not limited to "the brutal ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians from their land" nor to "massacres, killing, destruction, looting, violations, and displacement." The ministry said the Nakba "as a Zionist colonial project, was engineered by colonial powers and embodied in the Balfour Declaration."

Current context

This year's Nakba anniversary comes as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza since 2023, with more than 72,000 Palestinians killed. At the same time, the occupied West Bank has witnessed escalating Israeli military raids, settler attacks, and illegal settlement expansion, with more than 1,155 Palestinians killed since October 2023.