May 15, 2025, marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba—Arabic for "catastrophe"—the day in 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel. Homes were bulldozed, villages were emptied, and families were massacred. For Palestinians, this wasn’t just a moment in history. It was the beginning of a 77-year-long assault on their right to exist.
Despite what many Western narratives claim, the Nakba is ongoing. It did not end in 1948. It didn’t end in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. It hasn’t ended through the decades of airstrikes, sieges, settlements, checkpoints, and forced evictions. And it certainly hasn’t ended in 2025, as the world watches Israel carry out what many scholars, human rights organizations, and eyewitnesses are now calling genocide in real time.
A Death Toll Measured in Lives, Not Numbers
Since 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers. Exact numbers vary due to inconsistent reporting and decades of media distortion. Thousands of civilians have been killed in major military assaults on Gaza (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023, and the current assault ongoing in 2025), along with deaths from sniper fire, home demolitions, and settler violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The numbers don’t capture the fullness of the tragedy. Each number is a life: a child, a parent, a poet, a farmer, a student, a dreamer. Each death represents not only a stolen future but also the death of a people’s cultural memory, communal rhythm, and sense of home.
The Systematic Erasure of a Homeland
This violence is not just physical—it’s structural. Since 1948, over 500 Palestinian villages have been destroyed. Forests were planted over the ruins to cover up the evidence of ethnic cleansing. Today, Israeli highways, shopping centers, and parks stand atop the graves of erased communities.
In Gaza, Israel has bombed nearly every critical piece of infrastructure multiple times: hospitals, schools, water treatment facilities, media offices, and power plants. In the West Bank, Israel’s separation wall slices through farmland, school routes, and neighborhoods. Entire olive groves—some hundreds of years old—have been torched by settlers with full protection from Israeli soldiers.
Palestinian homes are demolished regularly under the claim that they lack permits—permits which Israel rarely grants. Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlements expand daily, consuming more and more land, often accompanied by violent evictions and settler attacks.
Refuge Betrayed
After World War II, the world watched in horror at the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities. Many countries, wracked with guilt, sought to offer refuge to Jewish survivors. But rather than providing sanctuary in Europe or North America, colonial powers pushed to create a new state in a land that was already inhabited—Palestine.
The Palestinian people—who had nothing to do with the Holocaust—offered Jews shelter, refuge, and a place to live. But that gesture was met not with mutual recognition, but with colonization, military takeover, and mass displacement. The people who had once come as guests became occupiers. And for 77 years, Palestinians have paid the price for Europe's sins.
The Dehumanization Machine
One of the most disturbing aspects of this ongoing catastrophe is the language used by Israeli officials and their supporters to justify it. High-ranking politicians have repeatedly referred to Palestinians as “human animals,” “terrorist nests,” or a “demographic threat.” They speak openly of flattening Gaza, of ensuring "no Palestinian remains." This isn’t hyperbole—it’s genocide talk. And the world is hearing it live, yet doing nothing.
These aren’t fringe voices. They are mainstream political figures, military leaders, and media commentators. The normalization of dehumanizing language allows unimaginable violence to become tolerable. When people are reduced to vermin, their extermination becomes thinkable—then, slowly, justifiable.
This language and ideology aren’t just dangerous—they are lethal. They strip Palestinians of their humanity in the eyes of the world, making every child killed by a missile somehow “inevitable,” every home destroyed a “security necessity,” and every cry for freedom a “terrorist threat.”
Global Complicity
The Nakba has continued for 77 years not just because of Israeli policies, but because of global complicity. The U.S. sends billions in military aid annually. Canada, the U.K., and European countries offer diplomatic cover. International bodies issue statements of "deep concern," but rarely act.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are punished for resisting in any form. Armed resistance is labeled terrorism. Peaceful protest is met with rubber bullets, arrests, and surveillance. Even speaking about Palestinian rights gets you censored or blacklisted in many Western institutions.
But Palestinians continue to speak. They continue to live, resist, write, sing, build, plant, and hope. That in itself is revolutionary. That in itself is the heartbeat of a people who refuse to be erased.
Gaza in 2025: A Living Graveyard
In Gaza today, the death toll from the ongoing Israeli assault has surpassed 75,000 people—mostly women and children. The actual death toll is feared to be much higher. Schools run by the UN have been bombed. Hospitals are out of service. Families are sleeping in the streets. Water is undrinkable. Food is nearly nonexistent. Israel has openly bragged about cutting off fuel, electricity, and humanitarian aid.
This is not a war. This is starvation as policy. This is mass murder as strategy. This is the Nakba, live-streamed on every social media platform—censored, suppressed, and still undeniable.
The Future Must Be Just
Seventy-seven years is far too long for any people to endure such suffering. The future must be one of justice—not just peace. Peace without justice is just a ceasefire for oppression. Justice means return, reparations, recognition, and the dismantling of apartheid and occupation. Justice means treating Palestinians not as animals, not as threats, but as fully human beings deserving of dignity, safety, and freedom.
Remember. Resist. Reimagine.
The Nakba is not over. But it doesn’t have to be forever. The world must not look away. The world must not normalize genocide. The memory of the past demands we act in the present to build a different future—one where no people’s existence is debated, devalued, or destroyed.
May 15, 2025, marks the 77th anniversary of the Nakba—Arabic for "catastrophe"—the day in 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel. Homes were bulldozed, villages were emptied, and families were massacred. For Palestinians, this wasn’t just a moment in history. It was the beginning of a 77-year-long assault on their right to exist.
Despite what many Western narratives claim, the Nakba is ongoing. It did not end in 1948. It didn’t end in 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. It hasn’t ended through the decades of airstrikes, sieges, settlements, checkpoints, and forced evictions. And it certainly hasn’t ended in 2025, as the world watches Israel carry out what many scholars, human rights organizations, and eyewitnesses are now calling genocide in real time.
A Death Toll Measured in Lives, Not Numbers
Since 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers. Exact numbers vary due to inconsistent reporting and decades of media distortion. Thousands of civilians have been killed in major military assaults on Gaza (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023, and the current assault ongoing in 2025), along with deaths from sniper fire, home demolitions, and settler violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The numbers don’t capture the fullness of the tragedy. Each number is a life: a child, a parent, a poet, a farmer, a student, a dreamer. Each death represents not only a stolen future but also the death of a people’s cultural memory, communal rhythm, and sense of home.
The Systematic Erasure of a Homeland
This violence is not just physical—it’s structural. Since 1948, over 500 Palestinian villages have been destroyed. Forests were planted over the ruins to cover up the evidence of ethnic cleansing. Today, Israeli highways, shopping centers, and parks stand atop the graves of erased communities.
In Gaza, Israel has bombed nearly every critical piece of infrastructure multiple times: hospitals, schools, water treatment facilities, media offices, and power plants. In the West Bank, Israel’s separation wall slices through farmland, school routes, and neighborhoods. Entire olive groves—some hundreds of years old—have been torched by settlers with full protection from Israeli soldiers.
Palestinian homes are demolished regularly under the claim that they lack permits—permits which Israel rarely grants. Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlements expand daily, consuming more and more land, often accompanied by violent evictions and settler attacks.
Refuge Betrayed
After World War II, the world watched in horror at the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities. Many countries, wracked with guilt, sought to offer refuge to Jewish survivors. But rather than providing sanctuary in Europe or North America, colonial powers pushed to create a new state in a land that was already inhabited—Palestine.
The Palestinian people—who had nothing to do with the Holocaust—offered Jews shelter, refuge, and a place to live. But that gesture was met not with mutual recognition, but with colonization, military takeover, and mass displacement. The people who had once come as guests became occupiers. And for 77 years, Palestinians have paid the price for Europe's sins.
The Dehumanization Machine
One of the most disturbing aspects of this ongoing catastrophe is the language used by Israeli officials and their supporters to justify it. High-ranking politicians have repeatedly referred to Palestinians as “human animals,” “terrorist nests,” or a “demographic threat.” They speak openly of flattening Gaza, of ensuring "no Palestinian remains." This isn’t hyperbole—it’s genocide talk. And the world is hearing it live, yet doing nothing.
These aren’t fringe voices. They are mainstream political figures, military leaders, and media commentators. The normalization of dehumanizing language allows unimaginable violence to become tolerable. When people are reduced to vermin, their extermination becomes thinkable—then, slowly, justifiable.
This language and ideology aren’t just dangerous—they are lethal. They strip Palestinians of their humanity in the eyes of the world, making every child killed by a missile somehow “inevitable,” every home destroyed a “security necessity,” and every cry for freedom a “terrorist threat.”
Global Complicity
The Nakba has continued for 77 years not just because of Israeli policies, but because of global complicity. The U.S. sends billions in military aid annually. Canada, the U.K., and European countries offer diplomatic cover. International bodies issue statements of "deep concern," but rarely act.
Meanwhile, Palestinians are punished for resisting in any form. Armed resistance is labeled terrorism. Peaceful protest is met with rubber bullets, arrests, and surveillance. Even speaking about Palestinian rights gets you censored or blacklisted in many Western institutions.
But Palestinians continue to speak. They continue to live, resist, write, sing, build, plant, and hope. That in itself is revolutionary. That in itself is the heartbeat of a people who refuse to be erased.
Gaza in 2025: A Living Graveyard
In Gaza today, the death toll from the ongoing Israeli assault has surpassed 75,000 people—mostly women and children. The actual death toll is feared to be much higher. Schools run by the UN have been bombed. Hospitals are out of service. Families are sleeping in the streets. Water is undrinkable. Food is nearly nonexistent. Israel has openly bragged about cutting off fuel, electricity, and humanitarian aid.
This is not a war. This is starvation as policy. This is mass murder as strategy. This is the Nakba, live-streamed on every social media platform—censored, suppressed, and still undeniable.
The Future Must Be Just
Seventy-seven years is far too long for any people to endure such suffering. The future must be one of justice—not just peace. Peace without justice is just a ceasefire for oppression. Justice means return, reparations, recognition, and the dismantling of apartheid and occupation. Justice means treating Palestinians not as animals, not as threats, but as fully human beings deserving of dignity, safety, and freedom.
Remember. Resist. Reimagine.
The Nakba is not over. But it doesn’t have to be forever. The world must not look away. The world must not normalize genocide. The memory of the past demands we act in the present to build a different future—one where no people’s existence is debated, devalued, or destroyed.
0 comments