The Insight: This month marks the 78th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba.
What is the Nakba, and what does it represent to the Palestinian people? Ahmed AbuDalfa The Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) is the tragic and defining turning point in the history of the Palestinian people.
In 1948, more than 800,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced as a result of attacks carried out by Zionist militias, the destruction of 531 Palestinian towns and villages, the perpetration of 70 massacres, and the killing of 15,000 Palestinians.
This led to the dispersal of the Palestinian people and turned them into refugees in their homeland and across the diaspora, marking the beginning of a long era of displacement and suffering whose effects continue to this day.
The Nakba constitutes a form of ethnic cleansing aimed at uprooting the defenseless Palestinian people from their land and replacing them with other groups as part of an organized plan.
For the Palestinian people, the Nakba is not merely a historical memory, but an ongoing reality that persists through policies of forced displacement, settlement expansion, land confiscation, genocide, siege, racist laws, imprisonment, and attempts to erase Palestinian national identity.
This year, our people commemorate this painful anniversary under the slogan: “We Will Not Leave, Our Roots Are Deeper Than Your Destruction,” to reaffirm our attachment to our land and our national rights — foremost among them the right of return, freedom, and independence — and our belief that rights do not expire with the passage of time, no matter how long it takes.
The Insight: The Gaza Strip is witnessing unprecedented humanitarian conditions amid the genocidal war launched by the Israeli occupation, accompanied by widespread destruction and numerous number of civilian casualties.
How would you describe the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe there, and what message would you like to convey to the international community? Ahmed AbuDalfa: What our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are enduring is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe that represents a continuation of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba of the past 78 years.Tens of thousands have been martyred or wounded, thousands remain missing beneath the rubble, and tens of thousands of children have been orphaned, all amid siege, starvation, and widespread destruction that has affected people, infrastructure, and every aspect of life.
Gaza has been transformed into a completely devastated city.
Neighborhoods have been flattened to the ground, and hospitals, schools, and shelters have been put out of service, while more than two million Palestinians are living under catastrophic conditions without water, electricity, medicine, or sufficient food.
But the tragedy cannot be measured by numbers alone.
What has been destroyed is not merely buildings and roads, but the memory of an entire people.
Homes are not just concrete walls, but the stories of families, the memories of children, and the dreams and daily lives of ordinary people.
Entire families have been exterminated, children killed before they had the chance to grow up, and mothers left searching through the rubble for fragments of photographs or toys belonging to their children.
What has happened and continues to happen in Gaza constitutes a real test for the conscience of the world.
Our message to the international community is clear: it is no longer acceptable to merely issue statements of concern.
Urgent action is required to compel the occupation to stop its crimes, lift the siege, allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, begin reconstruction efforts, provide international protection for the Palestinian people, hold those responsible for these crimes accountable, and work toward ending the occupation as the root cause of this ongoing tragedy.
All attempts by the occupation to push the people of Gaza toward displacement will fail in the face of our people’s steadfastness.
The Insight: In the West Bank, Israeli attacks are escalating through settlement expansion, raids on cities and refugee camps, and settler attacks.
How do you view what is happening there? Ahmed AbuDalfa: What is happening today in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is no longer merely a temporary escalation, but rather the systematic implementation of a racist settler-colonial project aimed at imposing a new reality by force through settlement expansion, the displacement of Palestinians, the fragmentation of Palestinian geography, and the undermining of any possibility for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.
We are witnessing an unprecedented escalation in the construction and expansion of illegal settlements.
The number of settlements and settlement outposts established on the land of the State of Palestine has risen to approximately 542 settlement sites inhabited by around 780,000 settlers, in blatant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions, which have clearly affirmed that settlements are illegal and legally null and void.
In addition, Palestinian cities, villages, and refugee camps are subjected to repeated daily raids carried out by Israeli occupation forces, accompanied by killings, arrests, destruction of infrastructure, and the terrorizing of civilians.
At the same time, settler gangs carry out organized attacks against Palestinian citizens, their property, places of worship, and agricultural lands under the protection of the Israeli army and with encouragement and political cover from the far-right Israeli government.
Therefore, what is happening is not merely “security measures,” as Israel attempts to portray it, but rather a systematic policy of organized terrorism, collective punishment, and gradual ethnic cleansing targeting Palestinian existence itself and seeking to impose an apartheid system that discriminates between people on the basis of identity and nationality.
The continuation of these policies destroys any opportunity for achieving a just peace, because peace cannot exist under occupation, settlement expansion, land confiscation, and the denial of the rights of the Palestinian people.
Despite all of this, our Palestinian people continue their legendary steadfastness and remain committed to their land, identity, and national rights, proving every day that the will for freedom and justice is stronger than oppression, displacement, and colonialism.
The Insight: The issue of Palestinian prisoners receives wide attention, especially in light of the recent law concerning the execution of prisoners.
Could you tell us about the conditions of the prisoners? Ahmed AbuDalfa: The issue of Palestinian prisoners is not merely a political or human rights issue, but one of the most painful issues in the life of the Palestinian people because it directly affects thousands of Palestinian families that have experienced the bitterness of imprisonment, deprivation, and loss.
Hardly a Palestinian family exists without one of its members having experienced detention inside Israeli occupation prisons.
These prisoners are prisoners of freedom.
Today, more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli occupation prisons, including hundreds of children and women, in addition to more....
