In its commemoration of Nakba Day in 2026, the Young Communist League of Britain extends its admiration for the continuing sumud of the Palestinian people and condemns the Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine since 1947 and the ongoing genocide in Gaza lasting over two and a half years. The great crime and tragedy that is the Nakba is a direct result of British imperialism which can be traced back to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and as such, Britain’s Young Communists have a special duty to uphold the Palestinian cause.
By the end of the 1948 war, over 400 Palestinian villages and towns had been destroyed and depopulated, of which the Deir Yassen massacre was just one example, in what is seen as the beginning of the Nakba. Palestinians would continue to suffer massive privation and violence in host countries, with the Sabra and Shatilla massacre of 1982 being emblematic of this. More recently, the entire camp populations of Jenin and Tulkarem in the West Bank were forced to flee due to Israeli military attacks in 2025. Today, UNRWA records some 5.9 million Palestinian refugees, of which nearly one-third reside in refugee camps spread across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip itself, out of a population of roughly 2.4 million, around 1.6 million are refugees. In the midst of all this tragedy, UN General Assembly Resolution 194 adopted on 11 December 1948 ensures the right of return of Palestinians, stating that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date”.
The past months have seen a continuation and intensification of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.
From 28 February, the al-Aqsa Mosque was closed to worshippers, resulting in their inability to conduct Eid prayers to mark the end of Ramadan in the third holiest site in Islam. Similarly, in an unprecedented move, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in Christianity, was closed on the same day and Israeli authorities prevented the celebration of Palm Sunday there, a dangerous break with the Status Quo in Jerusalem.
The signing into law on 30 March by the Israeli Knesset of the “Prisoner Execution” law which specifically applies the death penalty to Palestinians only has one historical antecedent in the form of Nazi Germany’s Decree of 4 December 1941 which singled out Poles and Jews for the death penalty. Most recently, this has been further escalated with the passing of a law on 12 May that will allow for the death penalty and public trials for those accused of being involved in the October 7 attacks, creating a legal framework to circumvent the fact that the “Prisoner Execution” law could not be applied retroactively. We have now arrived at a stage of show trials and legalised mass executions, the formalisation of decades of Israeli apartheid violence.
Comrades and friends are invited to share the following fundraising campaigns supporting displaced Palestinians in Lebanon:
Please also consider joining the Palestine Solidarity Campaign or if in Scotland the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Scottish Friends of Palestine.
Free Palestine!
International Department
Young Communist League
London, Britain,
15 May 2026
