On Nakba, ‘catastrophe’ lingers on amid Israeli apartheid: Palestinian Foreign Ministry

On the 74th anniversary of the Nakba (Day of Catastrophe), Palestine’s Foreign Ministry says the catastrophe lingers on amid Israel’s apartheid against the Palestinian people.

The Nakba (Catastrophe) Day marks the 1948 forced expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in historical Palestine as Israel proclaimed its illegal existence.

“Our people’s Nakba is still ongoing to this day through the continuation of the occupation [of their land], the settlement [construction] and the fight against the Palestinian presence across the historic Palestine,” the ministry said in a statement on Sunday, referring to the Israeli practices against the Palestinians.

The statement also blamed the “double standards” in many Western countries’ foreign policy for the ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli regime against the Palestinians.

Noting that the 74th anniversary of Nakba Day comes just few days after the Israeli murder of veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the “heinous, barbaric attack” on mourners at her funeral, the ministry said the killing and subsequent attack were “a living testimony to the ugliness and racism” of the Israeli regime and its ongoing crimes and violations against the Palestinian people.

Abu Akleh, a veteran correspondent for the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network's Arabic service, was shot in the head on Wednesday when she was reporting on an Israeli raid against Palestinians living in the Jenin refugee camp.

Her tragic death sent shock waves across the region, drawing global condemnation against the Israeli regime..

Thousands stage popular demonstrations across globe to mark 74th anniversary of Nakba Day

Thousands of people have taken part in mass rallies across the globe to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Nakba Day, or “Catastrophe,” which marks the 1948 forced expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians as Israel proclaimed its illegal existence.

The ministry also referred to the “failure” of the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and stop Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, stressing the need to implement the UN resolutions, particularly those that affirm the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to return and their right to an independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

The statement also called for holding the Israeli regime accountable for its crimes, including for committing the crime of apartheid.

Last year, Israel’s leading human rights group, B’Tselem, said in a report that Israel is not a democracy but an “apartheid regime” that systematically oppresses the Palestinians via military occupation and racist laws.

The Tel Aviv regime, it asserted, is using “laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another”.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East al-Quds during the Six-Day War in 1967. It later annexed East al-Quds in a move not recognized by the international community.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its capital.

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