Remembering the Nakba

15 May 2024

Today marks 76 years since the Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic). The Nakba refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 by zionist militias to make way for the creation of israel. Between 1947 and 1949, at least 15,000 Palestinians were killed, 750,000 were displaced, 530 towns and villages were destroyed, and 78% of historic Palestine was stolen.

The Nakba was not just a day nor a period confined to history; it is an ongoing process of ethnic cleansing. In 2023 alone, israel forcibly displaced around 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, amid house demolitions, access restrictions, and israeli settler violence. In the last seven months, israel's genocidal assault on Gaza marks an extreme escalation of the Nakba. israel has killed over 35,000 Palestinians and forcibly displaced over 1.7 million in a campaign of systematic destruction that has targeted every aspect of Palestinian life in Gaza.

The University of Oxford enables israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine by maintaining its financial ties and institutional connections to the israeli occupation and refusing to act in this most urgent time. We resist complicity amid the ongoing Nakba, and we keep our eyes on Gaza and Palestinian liberation on the horizon.