Official Statement:

77 Years of Nakba

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15 May 2025 marks the 77^th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, meaning “Catastrophe”. The Nakba began in 1948, when armed Zionist militias – later forming the Israeli army – carried out a systematic campaign of ethnic cleaning against the Palestinian people, resulting in the violent displacement and dispossession of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes to become refugees in neighbouring countries (Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria) or elsewhere in Palestine (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), in what has since become the world’s longest-standing refugee crisis. At least 531 Palestinian cities and villages were completely destroyed. The Nakba saw the State of Israel established upon the ruins of Palestinian society, and at the expense of the Palestinian people. 

The Nakba is more than a historical event: it is an ongoing crime, committed with the intent to erase the Palestinian people and prevent the realisation of their right to self-determination in their homeland.  In 1967, Israel’s illegal military occupation of the rest of historic Palestine – the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem – began a new phase of intensified colonization, land-theft, annexation, apartheid, and systematic denial of the rights of the Palestinian people, including the inalienable rights to self-determination and return, in clear violation of International Law and countless United Nations resolutions.

77 years after the Nakba began, the Palestinian people are being deliberately starved, bombed, and forcibly displaced by Israel in its ongoing genocidal assault against the Gaza Strip.  Since 7 October 2023, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have killed at least 52,760 Palestinian civilians in Gaza – the majority of which have been women and children. Israel continues to deliberately deprive the civilian population of food, water, medicine, and other essentials for life, while subjecting them to relentless bombardments. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that Israel is creating conditions that are “incompatible with sustaining life or the continued existence of Palestinians in Gaza”.

The ongoing Nakba is not confined to Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli occupation continues its systematic campaign of extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, home demolitions, land confiscation, and forced displacement – particularly targeting refugee camps. Meanwhile, Israel is escalating its attacks against UNRWA – the only organisation with the capacity to deliver the essential services it provides to Palestinians – as part of a wider long-term strategy to discredit, defund, and ultimately dismantle the Agency, with the goal of erasing the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

The UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices warned last week that what the world is witnessing across occupied Palestine “could very well be a second Nakba.”

For 77 years of continuous Nakba, the Palestinian people have remained steadfast and resilient, refusing to be erased or forgotten. Today, we reaffirm that the Palestinian people will continue their just struggle until the realisation of their freedom and legitimate rights, including the right to return and the right to self-determination in an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with international law and the two-State solution.

The General Delegation of Palestine urges the international community, including Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, to take urgent and meaningful actions to halt Israel’s genocidal war and manufactured starvation, to prevent any and all forms of forced displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland, and to reject any politicisation or militarisation of humanitarian aid.

There can be no lasting peace without justice, and no justice without accountability. Prosecuting the Israeli occupation for its crimes is a collective responsibility, and all peace-loving states must uphold international law and support international justice mechanisms – including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Finally, the General Delegation of Palestine urges all states that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine, including Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, to do so without delay, in support of the self-determination of the Palestinian people, and as a significant and historic contribution towards implementing the two-State solution and securing a just and durable peace. The upcoming high-level international peace conference in June offers a critical opportunity in this regard.

Palestine belongs to Palestinians; we will never leave.

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