Nakba Continues | May 17, 2026 | Rev. Dr. Karen Melander-Magoon
- The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
May 15
Nakba Day 1948
Anniversary of Palestinian dispossession
Of land
Of homes
Of bank accounts
Of all savings
All assets
Dispossessed of
Everything by colonialist Israel
Never to be returned
Along with the bodies of children
Bodies of friends and families
Murdered if not
Herded
Into Gaza
Lebanon
Jordan
West Bank
Stripped of their ancestry
Reaching back thousands of years
Nakba of forever grief
Anniversary of forever mourning
Anniversary Israel would like all
To forget
And instead celebrate Israel Independence Day
On the bodies and blood
On the homes and property
Of its dispossessed victims
Palestine calls the violence of Israel against its land and people the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were evicted from their lands, many of whom resisted expulsion, and were murdered, in a process we call “ethnic cleansing”. The beginning of that specific event, which the occupier of Palestine calls its Independence Day, was merely an extension of the horrors Palestinians had endured even before the first Zionist conference of 1898, which laid out plans to absorb Palestine for Israel through massive immigration of Jews, through the destruction of Palestinian villages and even the planting of 10,000 pine trees over destroyed villages to create new “facts on the ground” that, ironically, the pine trees themselves rejected since they could not exist in the arid climate of the Middle East.
All the Arab territories were promised independence through self-determination by the League of Nations after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, but in fact were divided into mandates with Syria and Lebanon controlled by the French until they became independent, and Iraq and Jordan as well as Palestine controlled by the British, with the understanding under the Balfour Declaration, that countries under the British Mandate, specifically Palestine, would become a Jewish National home (see Sykes-Picot agreement, resolved without Arab/Palestinian involvement).
Since this time the Zionist process of subjugating and renaming Palestine as a foundation for a Greater Israel, eventually intended to encompass Jordan, West Bank, parts of Syria, such as the Golan Heights, and Lebanon, continues apace. Villages with Arabic names receive Hebraic renaming. Palestinian homes are given to Jewish settlers or transformed into government headquarters or national parks.
Our own history of extermination of natives and annexation of their lands might serve as a backdrop or blueprint for colonialism, occupation and genocides marking the twentieth century and beyond.
Today, with our own government teaming with Israel in bombing Iran, seen as an enemy to Israel’s expansionist plans, the whole world has begun to question the validity of Israel and its ambitions, in tandem with the USA. Even in Venice, their Palestine Museum has been given over to 100 pieces of fabric art, called “Tatreeze” detailing genocide and injustice occurring in Palestine. The exhibit, called “Gaza---No Words”, focuses on the difficulty of Gazans even to speak of their enduring trauma.
Some of the Tatreez in the Palestinian Museum in Venice
Many churches and organizations have pledged to be “Apartheid Free”, expressing a desire to abnegate any discrimination based on race or ethnicity. Although both Apartheid and Genocide are crimes under international law, there is some understanding that apartheid can create conditions conducive to genocide, as many would argue it has done in Israel through its history of hostile occupation of Palestine. Occupation itself is illegal when it has outlived a war situation without redress or opportunity for self-determination of the occupied entity.
It is also possible for all of us to speak out against discrimination wherever we find it, just as we did against South African apartheid and discrimination.
Many of us know of the Freedom Flotillas sent out to help Gazans. The first, in 2008, was just two wooden boats with 44 activists from different countries, who were able to donate supplies and medicine and have amputee children treated in Cyprus. Since that time, Israel has blockaded such humanitarian aid, even attacking and murdering nine of the crew on the Mavi Marmara, sent from Turkey to bring aid to Gaza in May, 2010, and intercepting a flotilla sent out in 2025 with Greta Thunberg, climate activist, on board. The Global Sumud (meaning “steadfastness” in resistance) Flotilla, 50-60 ships with hundreds of activists from dozens of countries, launched in 2026 as a non-violent flotilla loaded with humanitarian aid and the aim to end the illegal blockade to Gaza and establish an aid corridor to bring supplies to Gaza, was attacked in April, and 497 people from 46 countries taken captive, kidnapped, imprisoned, and some allegedly tortured in Israel. Just this past Sunday, May 10, the last two captives were to be released and deported, following hunger strikes and international pressure, particularly from Spain, demanding the release of its citizens.
There will be more freedom flotillas, until Gaza is freed, and with attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and demolition in West bank, there is more international pressure for Israel to end its sieges on countries and territories it apparently aims to annex. The history of Israeli massacres, including the infamous Sabra Shatila massacre of Palestinians forced into Lebanon, will not be forgotten.
Some ask about October 7, 2023, when Gazans attempted to escape their prison, called the largest outdoor prison in the world, where they had been suffering for decades. Their intent was to take hostages to exchange for the thousands of prisoners held in Israeli jails. We all know the aftermath of violence and the besieging of Palestine, continuing today, along with encroachments into Lebanon and our complicity in the war against Iran. All of this violence is related and must end. Unitarian Universalist churches are asked to recognize May 15 as Nakba Day, the anniversary of Palestinian exile and oppression.
Hope rests in the international community, its governmental and non-governmental organizations, its churches and ordinary citizens, to insist that all countries and peoples be safe and that international law be respected as we strive together for peace, justice and equality among all people and nations. Above all, hope rests in all of us striving for a just and enduring peace, that can only come if we let love light our paths as we speak up for what is right.
Our beloved Howard Thurman once wrote (in The Inward Journey)
I offer my prayer to God:
“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace.” Teach me how to order my days that with sure touch I may say the right word at the right time and in the right way — lest I betray the spirit of peace. Let me not be deceived by my own insecurity and weakness which would make me hurt another as I try desperately to help myself. Keep watch with me, O my Father, over the days of my life, that with abiding enthusiasm I may be in such possession of myself that each day I may offer to Thee the full, unhampered use of me in all my parts as “an instrument of Thy Peace.” Amen.
May we all be instruments of peace as we seek to help transform the world in the service of love.
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