May 15 marked the 78th Nakba Day, a day observed by Palestinians after experiencing the Nakba, or the Catastrophe, at the hands of Zionist colonial settlers and their militias. A campaign of atrocities befell the Palestinians when Zionists, under the guise of representing Judaism (and not the ethno-supremacy ideology it was), destroyed villages through violent means, including poisoning drinking wells, resulted in the displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians. 

Nakba Day is not simply the remembrance of atrocities that befell the ancestors of Palestinians. To be clear, the Nakba never ended. Catastrophe after catastrophe, in the form of war crimes backed by propaganda, became the norm of Palestinian life. Israel claimed more land, shrinking the borders of the West Bank and Gaza. An illegal wall sprung up surrounding Gaza in the world’s largest open-air prison. Access to the sea and border crossings were not under Palestinian control. The West Bank became Israel’s playground for theft of ancestral homes. This all before the horrific acts of the last two and half years. 

The world, especially the United States, whose tax dollars support the genocide and apartheid that is the Zionist way of life, must put an end to the Nakba. Jewish people across the world who know the incompatibility of Judaism and political Zionism are the strongest advocates for Palestinian rights. History will remember those who stood up, and those who stood silent in what is undoubtably, unequivocally the moral test of our time.

Christopher Claar
Gray