Rashida Tlaib holds event marking Nakba Day despite House speaker’s opposition

Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has hosted an event commemorating the 75^th anniversary of Nakba Day, when 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homeland by Israelis, despite US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s push to cancel it.

The event—dubbed “Nakba 75 & the Palestinian People”—was held as scheduled in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Dozens of people attended the event with several standing around the edges of the room and spilling outside the door.

The event featured Nakba survivors as well as academics and activists who stressed that the dispossession of Palestinians has not stopped.

“We have a right to tell our stories of the Nakba,… because the Nakba never ended,” Tlaib told the packed room.

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This comes as McCarthy had claimed in a post on his Twitter account a day earlier that the event has been canceled, arguing that, “It’s wrong for members of Congress to traffic in anti-Semitic tropes about Israel.”

“As long as I’m speaker, we are going to support Israel’s right to self-determination and self-defense, unequivocally and in a bipartisan fashion,” he said.

Tlaib responded in a statement: “We fully plan on moving forward with this event and we will continue to ensure that Palestinian voices are heard. We will not be silenced.”

She further noted that “Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history and erase the existence and truth of the Palestinian people, but he has failed to do so.”

“This event is planned to bring awareness about the Nakba and create space for Palestinian Americans who experienced the Nakba firsthand to tell their stories of trauma and survival.”

The Muslim congresswoman further explained that the Nakba is a well-documented historical event that is recognized by the United Nations.

“We cannot allow the same people who want to ban books and erase history simply because they’re uncomfortable with the truth to silence Palestinian voices,” she stressed.

The Nakba Day or the Day of Catastrophe is officially marked every year on May 15, one day after the Israeli regime came into existence in 1948.

Some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands in 1948 and were scattered across refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Palestine’s neighboring countries. Over five million Palestinian refugees are estimated to be still displaced.

Palestinians and their supporters across the globe hold rallies and other events on Nakba Day.

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Tlaib also introduced a resolution to recognize the Nakba, calling on Congress to “condemn all manifestations of Israel’s ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people,” particularly land grabs, destruction of Palestinian-owned homes and Israeli military and settlers violence against Palestinians, which have become a daily occurrence.  

“A just and lasting peace cannot be established without addressing the Nakba and remedying its injustices towards the Palestinian people,” the proposal reads, adding that the Nakba is the “root cause” of the issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians.

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