Friday, May 15, 2026, marks the 78th Anniversary of the Nakba, and UUJME is asking UU congregations across the United States to bear witness by recognizing Nakba Day during service on May 17th.

“The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Before the Nakba, Palestine was a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. However, the conflict between Arabs and Jews intensified in the 1930s with the increase of Jewish immigration, driven by persecution in Europe, and with the Zionist movement aiming to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.” Between 700,000 and 800,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed or fled from their cities and villages during the Nakba. Hundreds of towns and villages were destroyed by Israeli forces. Displaced Palestinians were never allowed to return.

The General Assembly of the United Nations first recognized Nakba Day in 2023. In 2024, the UUA General Assembly affirmed our “Solidarity with Palestinians” in an Action of Immediate Witness. Forced removal is a war crime, a denial of human rights. Today, as our US tax dollars support the continued killing and forced removal of Palestinians in Palestine—and their oppression by apartheid laws and systems in Israel and the occupied territories

Many Palestinians, human rights organizations, Middle Eastern scholars, and some UN bodies explicitly describe the Nakba as ongoing rather than a closed event in the late 1940s. Today, our US tax dollars support the continued killing and forced removal of Palestinians.

Across Gaza, the West Bank, and now in Lebanon, millions of people continue to be displaced.

? In the Gaza Strip, roughly 90 percent of the people, about 1.9 million Palestinians, have been displaced at some point during the current war, and many have been uprooted multiple times. (72,600 died.)

? Over the past year, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the West Bank, which the UN describes as one of the largest waves of forced displacement there in decades. (over 1500 killed.)

? In Lebanon, Palestinians have lived in displacement since 1948, and in the past few months, many of them have been uprooted yet again by Israeli strikes and mass evacuation orders. The current ongoing military

escalation has fueled the displacement of over 1,000,000 individuals in under one month. (Recent figures are 1.2 million people displaced and 2600 dead.)

Fear is deepening among already vulnerable communities.

UUs affirm the values of Pluralism, Interdependence, Generosity, Equity, Transformation, and Justice. We are bound by love to bring these values into the world, and make them a reality.