Palestinians Mark Nakba’s 78th Anniversary as UN Testimonies Describe Israeli Violence

Palestinians marked the Nakba’s 78th anniversary on May 15, with UN reporting that the UN Committee on the Exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people held an event to “continuing to draw attention to this historic catastrophe and to the ongoing hardship endured by the Palestinian people.”

“Inside a displacement tent that has been turned into a temporary educational space in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian children tried to reclaim the features of their destroyed villages and homes through clay models, wooden keys of return, and songs carrying the pain of war and the memory of the Nakba”

Al-Jazeera Net

In London, Sara Husseini said Palestinians in the UK feel pressured into silence while “friends and families are being massacred back home,” and she spoke before a national march commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Nakba.

Al-Jazeera Net

Husseini tied the present to the past, saying many Palestinians felt they were being treated “not as victims of mass suffering, but as suspects whose grief had become politicised,” as she described daily horror and fear as Palestinians watched families and friends “massacred, starved and tortured.”

The same UN event featured testimony from Wasam Hamada, who said: “Do you realize what it feels like when your child begs you to save him from an Israeli tank, or from the horror of death?”

UN also reported that the audience heard video testimony from Talya, sister of Os Hamdi Naasan, 14, who was killed by Israeli settlers in the village of al-Mughair in the occupied West Bank, and Talya said, “history repeats itself and Os is killed.”

Husseini described how Palestinians in Britain said they faced pressure to be silent, including fear of wearing Palestinian symbols at work or displaying Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public.

She said, “We have many documented reports of Palestinians and allies being silenced or punished for wearing Palestinian symbols, watermelon pins, or speaking about the genocide,” and she added that Palestinians were effectively told “we’re going to disbelieve you, interrogate you, stop you from speaking about it.”

All Israel News

In parallel, Hürriyet Daily News reported that Israel threatened to take The New York Times to court over a Nicholas Kristof opinion column alleging sexual abuse of Palestinian inmates.

The Israeli government’s threat was framed in a joint statement ordering “the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times,” while Danielle Rhoades Ha said the newspaper’s response was that the legal claim “lacked merit.”

Husseini’s account of being treated as suspects and the legal threat described by Hürriyet Daily News both centered on how speech about the war is contested, with Husseini saying she was “paint[ed] as the problem” if she spoke.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told WAFA that “more than 600,000 children in Gaza have been deprived of formal education for more than two years,” and he said the children were enduring deep trauma amid rubble.

“On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the start of the Nakba, Noura Erakat, a lawyer and co-editor of Jadaliyya, addressed the United Nations (video below)”

Contretemps

WAFA also reported that “65,000 children attend UNRWA's temporary learning spaces in Gaza,” while “nearly 300,000 other children receive basic literacy and numeracy instruction via digital platforms.”

In the broader framing of Nakba as an ongoing reality, Truthout quoted Dr. Mohammed Khattab describing the Nakba as “hell gates” opening on Palestinian life and said, “I cannot remember what my life looked like before the Nakba.”

Khattab told Truthout that “Since the first days of the genocide, I felt the horrifying memories of the 1948 Nakba replaying,” and he said, “Today marks the 78th anniversary of our Nakba, compounding with our 2023–2025 Nakba.”

Contretemps’ Noura Erakat-linked account described the stakes as continuing destruction and displacement, stating “Israel has destroyed 92% of Gaza's residential buildings” and that it “rendered its 36 hospitals inoperable.”