Abu Holi: The Nakba is an ongoing crime aimed at eliminating national rights and uprooting our people.
He warned against new displacement patterns and the reproduction of the Nakba through racist policies and genocidal crimes.
Ramallah, May 6, 2026 (WAFA) – The Department of Refugee Affairs announced the launch of activities to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba under the slogan: “We will not leave… Our roots are deeper than your destruction.”
Ahmed Abu Holi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, head of the Refugee Affairs Department, and head of the Higher National Committee for Commemorating the Nakba, said that this year’s events come at the most dangerous stage our Palestinian people have been going through since the Nakba of 1948, in light of the ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, the targeting of camps in the northern West Bank, and attempts to liquidate the refugee issue and end the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
He explained that the Higher National Committee for Commemorating the Nakba approved a comprehensive national program of central and local events in the homeland and the diaspora, which includes mass marches, national festivals, popular vigils and sit-ins in front of the headquarters of the United Nations and UNRWA, in addition to a broad media and digital campaign to highlight the Palestinian narrative and expose the crimes of the occupation and the policies of displacement and ethnic cleansing .
Abu Holi indicated that the central event in the northern governorates will be held on Tuesday, May 12, in the city of Ramallah, through the “National Return March” which will start from the shrine of the martyr Yasser Arafat towards Al-Manara roundabout, including a central speech festival, raising the keys of return and black flags, in addition to stopping for 78 seconds when the siren of mourning sounds in loyalty to the martyrs of our people .
He added that the activities will continue in the Gaza Strip through the National Return Festival in Khan Younis camp next to the Khan Younis Youth Club on May 11, carrying messages of adherence to the right of return and rejection of displacement and resettlement plans, while the diaspora camps and Palestinian communities in Arab, European, American, Asian and African countries will witness political and popular activities, and sit-ins in front of the headquarters of the United Nations and international institutions to emphasize that “there is no justice without accountability.”
Abu Holi confirmed that the digital and media campaign will launch on May 7 and continue until May 17, through media outlets and social media platforms .
He explained that the campaign will include the publication of infographics, documentary materials, short films and live testimonies about the Nakba, the massacres of the occupation, the destroyed Palestinian villages, and the conditions of Palestinian refugees in the camps, in addition to highlighting the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, the targeting of camps in the northern West Bank, and the dangers of banning UNRWA and drying up its funding sources .
He stressed that the events commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Nakba will carry clear political and national messages to the international community, confirming that the Palestinian refugee issue is not subject to liquidation or elimination, that the right of return is an individual and collective right that does not expire with time, and that UNRWA represents the living international witness to the crime of the Nakba and the responsibility of the international community towards Palestinian refugees .
He indicated that the Higher National Committee will send political memoranda and letters to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the heads of Arab and international parliaments through the Palestinian National Council, which will include messages about the Nakba and demand that the international community assume its legal and moral responsibilities towards our Palestinian people, work to stop the war of extermination, protect Palestinian refugees, ensure the continuation of UNRWA’s work, and reject any measures aimed at ending its UN mandate .
Abu Holi called on the masses of our people in the homeland and the diaspora to participate widely and actively in all activities commemorating the Nakba, and to raise the unified Palestinian voice in defense of the right of return and national principles, stressing that our people, who have thwarted the bets of displacement and uprooting, will remain rooted in their land, and that the Palestinian camps will remain a symbol of national identity and a fortress for defending the right of return until freedom, independence and return .
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R.H.
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