| AFIC urges the government to suspend all military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and arms trade with Israel immediately. |
|
AFIC Commemorates 77 Years Since the Nakba: A History of Dispossession, A Present of Genocide
15/05/2025
(See translation in Arabic section)
Sydney-Middle East Times Int'l: Today marks 77 years since the Nakba—the ‘catastrophe’ that befell the Palestinian people in 1948 with the creation of the state of Israel. This was not a tragic accident of history, but the culmination of decades of calculated violence and forced displacement.
The Nakba followed a sustained campaign of terror by Zionist militias such as the Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah. These groups carried out systematic attacks, bombings, and massacres, most notoriously in Deir Yassin, to instil fear and forcibly expel the Palestinian population. Entire villages were razed, families slaughtered, and communities scattered across refugee camps and foreign borders.
The state of Israel was not peacefully negotiated into existence—it was imposed on the indigenous Palestinian people, who have never ceded their land nor surrendered their inalienable right to return. More than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly removed, over 500 towns and villages were depopulated or destroyed, and a people whose presence stretches back centuries were made stateless in a matter of months.
And the Nakba never ended. For 77 years it has continued.
It has continued through military occupation, apartheid policies, land theft, settlement expansion, home demolitions, and the systematic denial of basic human rights. What we are witnessing in Gaza today is not a new crisis, it is a continuation of the same project of erasure and domination that began in 1948.
To suggest that the violence began on October 7, 2023 is a deliberate distortion of history. It ignores 17 years of blockade on Gaza, repeated military assaults, and the complete suffocation of daily life for two million Palestinians, half of whom are children. It ignores the decades of displacement, occupation, and apartheid that preceded it. It is not the beginning. It is the boiling point of a 77-year-long injustice.
The current genocide in Gaza, marked by mass killings, starvation, targeted attacks on hospitals, schools, journalists, and aid workers, is the logical and horrifying continuation of the Nakba. The world may speak of ceasefires and humanitarian pauses, but the root cause is clear - the persistent refusal to acknowledge the rights, dignity, and humanity of the Palestinian people.
As we commemorate the Nakba today, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) calls on the Australian Government to move beyond symbolic language and take concrete, principled action.
We urge the government to:
• Unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the broader system of apartheid enforced on Palestinians.
• Impose targeted sanctions on Israel, in line with Australia’s obligations under international law and consistent with its actions in other global conflicts.
• Suspend all military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and arms trade with Israel immediately.
• Call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and demand the lifting of the blockade on Gaza and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid.
• Formally recognise the State of Palestine, and support its full membership at the United Nations.
• Support international accountability mechanisms, including cases before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
This is not simply a matter of diplomacy. It is a test of moral clarity. If Australia fails to act now, if it chooses silence over justice, neutrality over principle, then history will remember that failure. And it will judge us accordingly.
Today, as we remember the Nakba, we do not only grieve we resist. We honour the courage of the Palestinian people who have endured 77 years of forced exile, occupation, and brutality with unyielding resilience. We stand in solidarity with their right to return, their right to resist, and their right to live in freedom and dignity.
AFIC reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the Palestinian cause and calls on all people of conscience—across faiths, sectors, and nations—to raise their voices, take a stand, and demand an end to this era of impunity.
The Nakba is not a memory. It is a reality. And it must end.
|
|
|
