Palestine calls on world to recognize Nakba as ‘crime of ethnic cleansing’

1948 Nakba still ongoing amid Israel’s war on Gaza, escalation in occupied West Bank, says Palestinian Foreign Ministry

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. 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 through ending the prolonged Israeli colonial occupation.” Palestinians use the term "Nakba," or "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, according to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The ministry reminded the international community of its responsibilities and “the importance of delivering justice to the Palestinian people and holding perpetrators accountable,” including recognizing the Nakba as “a crime against humanity that cannot be denied, justified, or defended under any pretext.” 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 with the aim of uprooting the Palestinian people from their land, erasing their identity, and replacing them with settlers.” The Balfour Declaration refers to a letter sent by then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour on Nov. 2, 1917, to Lord Lionel Rothschild, a leader of the Zionist movement at the time, in which the British government pledged support for establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The ministry said the Nakba “is an ongoing crime that has never stopped,” pointing to Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza and the expansion of violence into the occupied West Bank. The suffering caused by the Nakba included “the theft of land and rights and turning millions of Palestinians into refugees deprived of their right to return to their homeland,” it added. The ministry stressed that the duty of the international community “is not limited to supporting the Palestinian cause but extends to protecting the Palestinian people and preventing the recurrence of such horrific crimes.” This year’s Nakba anniversary comes as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza since 2023 through deadly bombardment and restrictions on humanitarian aid, despite a ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded over 172,000 others, while causing massive destruction to homes, infrastructure, and vital facilities, in addition to a severe humanitarian crisis driven by siege conditions and shortages of food, water, and medicine. At the same time, the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has witnessed escalating Israeli military raids, arrests, road closures, occupiers' attacks, and illegal settlement expansion. The escalation in the West Bank since October 2023 has killed more than 1,155 Palestinians, wounded around 11,750 others, and led to the arrest of nearly 22,000 people, according to official Palestinian figures. Occupiers’ violence has also intensified, including attacks on villages, arson, uprooting trees, and preventing farmers from reaching their land under Israeli military protection, according to official Palestinian reports. Palestinian officials say the policies are part of a “systematic escalation” aimed at imposing new realities on the ground and undermining the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state.