Palestine observes the 77th anniversary of Nakba. The painful event, when the nation was forced into an exodus by the white supremacist Zionist settlers from Europe who had occupied their lands in 1948. The creation of Israel meant the displacement of Palestinians, a pain that the aboriginal people carry to date, especially when Israel continues an unprecedented aggression on Gaza, termed by the resistance as “genocide”, which has killed over 52,000 people in 19 months.
Despite the aggression, the attacks on civilians, hospitals and the massacre, which includes killing children, women, old, sick, medics, paramedics, journalists and even UN staff in front of the so-called “international community” with sheer impunity, the Palestinian resistance, especially its left-wing, nationalist and progressive forces, show that they won’t budge, despite the bloodshed, and will continue to strive for their free homeland.
In a statement commemorating the wounds of the Nakba, which took place on May 15th, the left-wing resistance organisation Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that it’s “Either Palestine… or fire[hell], generation after generation”.
The Marxist-Leninist organisation said, “In the face of the renewed Nakba… we resist, we unite, and we move toward return and liberation.”
Calling upon the people of Palestine, of the Arab world, and the people around the world, the PFLP said, “On May 15th, we mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, our open wound that has not healed, and a painful turning point in human history, when zionist gangs, with the full support of colonial powers, committed one of the most horrific crimes of the modern era: the systematic ethnic cleansing of our Palestinian people, their displacement, the destruction of hundreds of cities and villages, and the planting of a racist settler entity on the ruins of our homeland.”
“The Nakba represented a pivotal moment in the history of our people, a profound revelation of the nature of the zionist project as a racist, colonialist, and uprooting tool aimed at erasing Palestinian national identity and existence, seizing land, and displacing the Palestinian people. Since that moment, the chapters of the Nakba have not ceased, but have continued in renewed forms of killing, massacres, expulsion, discrimination, impoverishment, and siege,” the PFLP further said.
While the West’s mainstream media continues to downplay Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip, even after the number of victims crossed the 50,000 mark, the history of Nakba remains concealed from the masses in the West. One of the reasons behind not disclosing the barbaric nature of the uprooting of the Palestinian people from the land is that the Zionist project has always been presented by the West as an organic process, a normal event where a displaced nation returned to a “promised land”. It doesn’t talk about the terror, the violence and the oppression unleashed by the Anglo-Saxon camp-led Zionist forces on an unarmed, disorganised Palestinian people, who failed to anticipate the catastrophe.
“Today, the Nakba is being replayed in a more bloody and barbaric form in the Gaza Strip, where our people are subjected to a genocide war unprecedented in modern history. The occupation machine is carrying out the most heinous forms of killing, destruction, starvation, and displacement. Hospitals, schools, and displacement camps are being bombed amidst a stifling siege, international complicity, international silence, and direct American partnership,” the PFLP said about the Gaza aggression, pointing its finger towards the US, which has been aiding Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israel to carry out the goriest atrocities in the 21st century.
Commemorating Palestine’s painful 77th anniversary of Nakba, the PFLP also highlighted the “steadfastness of our people across the homeland and in exile, from Gaza to the West Bank, from Al-Quds to the 1948 territories, and from the diaspora camps to forced exile”.
On the occasion of Palestine’s 77th anniversary of Nakba, the PFLP affirmed nine crucial points.
Comprehensive, historic struggle
The PFLP called their resistance struggle a “comprehensive, historic struggle that will only be resolved by achieving our people’s full national rights, at the heart of which are the right of return, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on all Palestinian soil with Al-Quds as its capital.”
This has been the key demand for the Palestinian people, contrasting with the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Fatah faction, which agrees to a “two-state solution”, which now Mr Netanyahu has clearly rejected.
The PFLP’s call for a free Palestinian state on all Palestinian soil resonates with the common people’s desire to have back their lost land and homes without opting for a “two-state solution”, which doesn’t even suit Israel’s long-term security interests.
“The Palestinian cause will remain the core of the Arab-zionist conflict until the roots of the Nakba are eradicated and the occupation ends,” the PFLP added, emphasising the continuation of the Palestinian liberation struggle until total liberation.
Unified resistance under PLO
Highlighting the need for a unified resistance under the PLO, the PFLP acknowledged that resistance can have different forms, but armed struggle will be its principal form.
“The true response to the Nakba and its repercussions is to build a unified resistance front and formulate a comprehensive national strategy that embraces resistance in all its forms, with armed struggle at its forefront. This strategy reaffirms the PLO as a comprehensive and unified national framework, based on partnership and democracy and in accordance with national consensus decisions,” the PFLP said, subtly criticising the Fatah faction’s attempt to seize control of the PLO in a recent meeting that was boycotted by all factions except Mr Abbas’s sycophants.
“This strategy aims to block the path to monopolisation and hegemony, harness the energies of our people wherever they reside, and enable them to express their will to resist the occupation until liberation and return,” the PFLP added.
Ending the siege
While highlighting Palestine’s 77th anniversary of Nakba, the PFLP also raised the issue of Gaza. The left-wing organisation emphasised the need to end the siege on the enclave to ensure that the trapped people’s sufferings end.
“In light of these ongoing chapters of crime, the top priority today is to stop the genocide war against our people in the Gaza Strip, end their suffering, break the siege, begin reconstruction, and embark on a political path based on the inalienable national rights of our people,” the PFLP said.
A new Nakba
The PFLP warned about the US agenda of changing West Asia’s landscape with the help of Arab monarchs and the Zionist Israeli forces. It warned about the threat of a new Nakba looming, as US President Donald Trump builds bridges between the Israelis and the Arab monarchs, amid the ongoing attacks on civilians, during his recent Middle East tour.
“We warn against attempts to impose renewed ‘Nakba’ under the guise of expansionist colonialist liquidation projects such as the ‘Abraham Accords’, a ‘New Middle East’, and other dubious schemes aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause,” the PFLP said.
The refugee crisis
While Palestine’s 77th anniversary of Nakba reminds its people about their lost homeland, the PFLP draws attention to the “attempts to liquidate” the refugee status of the Palestinians evicted from their homes by the Israeli colonial occupation.
The PFLP highlights how the US-backed Israeli forces are attacking the very relief work for the refugees to eradicate the refugee identity of the Palestinians so that the global sympathy remains with Israel, which plays the Holocaust victim card.
“Confronting attempts to liquidate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is of paramount importance in light of zionist-American plans aimed at erasing the refugee issue and the right of return,” the PFLP said.
“Targeting UNRWA in Gaza—through the destruction of its facilities and staff, the closure of its institutions in Al-Quds, and the prevention of its operations in the West Bank is part of a systematic plan to liquidate the refugee issue,” the organisation added.
End of Oslo Accords
For Palestine, on the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, it’s important to remember that the two-state proposal heavily tilts towards the Israelis, and there is nothing left for Palestine in it. However, using the special powers that the Oslo Accords provide, the Palestinian Authority’s pseudo forces unleash atrocities on Palestinians who dare to resist and also stop the pensions to the families whose members are killed by the Israeli forces.
“We renew our call for complete liberation from the Oslo Accords and its consequences, ending the PA’s obligations resulting from them, halting security coordination and all forms of persecution of the resistance, reversing all dangerous and arbitrary decisions regarding allocations for the families of martyrs, prisoners, the wounded, and the freed, severing all forms of dependence on American-zionist projects, and moving towards building a unified arena of struggle that expresses the free will of the Palestinian people,” the PFLP said.
Vital forces
“The masses of our nation, its intellectuals, and its vital forces must rise to support our struggle and confront the genocide war against our people. They must reject all forms of normalisation with the zionist enemy, and confront the project of neo-colonial hegemony and plans to fragment the region,” the PFLP said in the statement.
Regional resistance
The PFLP expressed its solidarity with those forces that have been fighting in support of Palestine, shoulder-to-shoulder despite their ideological differences. The PFLP especially thanked the Yemenis and Lebanese resistance for supporting Palestine on the 77th anniversary of Nakba.
“We salute with reverence the steadfastness of the brotherly Yemeni people, who have faced aggression and blockade for years. Today, they continue—through their courageous positions and popular and official initiatives—to provide support for our cause and affirm our unity of destiny and struggle by imposing new deterrent equations that extend deep into the zionist entity in support of Gaza,” the PFLP said highlighting the role played by Yemen’s Armed Forces that drove away the USS Harry Truman and the entire American war machine with its courageous actions.
“We also salute the valiant Lebanese resistance, which has been and continues to be a solid supporter of our people and resistance, a partner in the battle to defend Palestine, and a confirmation of the cohesion of the resistance fronts in the face of the zionist project,” the PFLP said, thanking the Lebanese.
For the sake of Palestine, the Lebanese resistance organisation Hezbollah suffered the worst, as scores of its fighters, including the stalwart Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israeli strikes.
Internationalism 77th Anniversary of Nakba
“We highly appreciate the cries of solidarity that have risen from the streets and universities of Washington, London, Madrid, Brussels, Johannesburg, and all the capitals and cities of the world in support of Gaza, in rejection of the aggression, and in support of our people’s just rights,” the PFLP said, praising the international wave in support of Palestinian resistance, unseen before the Vietnam war.
“The rise of international solidarity constitutes an advanced front in the battle to stop the war, break the siege, expose the crimes of the occupation, and hold it accountable at the international level,” the PFLP said, underscoring the need for international collaborations against the Zionist forces.
The pledge
On Palestine’s 77th anniversary of the Nakba, the PFLP pledged saying, “We renew our pledge to our people, to the souls of our martyrs, to our prisoners, and to our wounded, that the Popular Front will remain a voice of truth, a shield of resistance, a guardian of national principles, and a staunch defender of the right of return, which is neither forfeited nor negotiable.”
While concluding its message, the PFLP quoted the organisation’s founder, George Habash: “We cannot guarantee the future of our generations while the zionist disease remains on Arab land.”
