No words can express our rage against the present-day Nakba being experienced by the Palestinian people.

The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) strongly condemns the systemic racism and disgusting inhumanity displayed by Israel, especially this past week. Since May 7, the last Friday of Ramadan and this year’s Al-Quds Day, Zionist aggression has tremendously escalated in the Palestinian territories.

Just yesterday, Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed 32 including children and wounded at least 220. Protests in the West Banks were also violently suppressed, with about 250 Palestinians injured.

In East Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque has been the subject of daily Zionist attacks, targeting the worship of the Palestinians for Ramadan. Israeli state forces fired rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades to tens of thousands of Palestinians while in worship. At least 500 Palestinians were injured, mostly in the eyes and head, while the mosque – the third holiest site in Islam – suffered serious damages.

At the center of the tension is the October 2020 eviction order issued by Israel’s Jerusalem District Court against 12 out of the 24 Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, East Jerusalem. The Palestinians have protested the ruling for its historical revisionism – the rightful title of Sheikh Jarrah belongs to the Palestinian families by virtue of the 1956 agreement signed between the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Jordanian government. The agreement took place before the Zionist occupation of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its annexation of the city in 1980.

It is infuriating that the Palestinians living in Sheikh Jarrah are facing another Nakba in the area they sought as refuge from the 1948 Nakba, which we are currently commemorating. PCFS joins the global clamor to #SaveSheikhJarrah and for the international recognition of the 1956 UNRWA-Jordanian government agreement. We echo the call of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to stop all forced evictions.

The Coalition also urges the international community to call out Israel for its war crimes and demand accountability for deliberately violating the international humanitarian law, as well as the US for providing Israel the military aid and political impunity to perpetrate these crimes. Let us back the independent probe of the International Criminal Court and urge the United Nations to take a moral stance, instead of just urging Israel to “exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force.”

On this year’s Nakba Day, we affirm our support for the relentless struggle of the Palestinian people and their assertion of their right to self-determination and return. Let us forge our solidarity with the Palestinians and the people of the Global South against imperialist-backed attacks including proxy wars and occupations.

Save Sheikh Jarrah!

Resist the Zionist occupation!

Hold US-Israel accountable for their war crimes!

Free Palestine!

(Photo by AFP)