By Terrence Kurira
The Palestinian Embassy in Zimbabwe hosted a powerful commemoration marking the 76th anniversary of Al-Nakba, a historical catastrophe that remains a painful scar in Palestinian memory. Diplomats, activists, students, and journalists gathered to reflect on the enduring struggle against occupation and genocide, amidst the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has claimed thousands of lives.
Al-Nakba, or “The Catastrophe,” refers to the mass displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 following the establishment of the state of Israel. This violent upheaval saw hundreds of Palestinian villages razed to the ground, families torn apart, and communities fractured. Decades later, Palestinians continue to endure displacement, occupation, and violence—a grim reality highlighted at the Harare commemoration.
Palestinian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr. Tamar Almassri, delivered an impassioned address that laid bare the historical injustices that set the stage for today’s atrocities in Gaza. He traced the roots of the conflict back to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, when Britain, under colonial rule, pledged to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine without consulting its native Arab population.
“We received them as guests escaping discrimination and torture in Europe,” Almassri said, referencing Jewish refugees who fled persecution during and after World War II. “But when the British occupation began in 1917, they allied with colonial powers and turned against us.”
The ambassador underscored how the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which allocated over half of historic Palestine to Jewish settlers, was a unilateral imposition devoid of Palestinian consent. “We were forced to pay for Europe’s crimes—the Holocaust happened there, yet we bore the consequences,” he said, drawing a direct line between European anti-Semitism and the dispossession of Palestinians.
Today, the conflict’s toll continues to mount. Since October 2023, over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as Israel launched relentless aerial bombardments. Entire families have been wiped out, homes reduced to rubble, and critical infrastructure decimated. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe, as over 1.5 million people remain trapped without access to water, food, or medical aid.
Almassri revealed that Israel had dropped over 100,000 tons of explosives on Gaza—equivalent to seven times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Among the targets was the European Hospital in Gaza, which was bombed out of service, depriving thousands of civilians of vital healthcare.
“They have killed 216 journalists, erased entire families, and yet demand global sympathy,” Almassri said, his voice heavy with indignation. “But Palestine will not be erased.”
Sheikh Henry Balakazi of the Zimbabwe Palestine Solidarity Council echoed these sentiments, condemning what he termed “the live-streamed genocide” in Gaza. “The Nakba did not end in 1948—it continues today in Israel’s starvation tactics, bombings, and apartheid,” he declared.
Balakazi described the dire conditions in Gaza, where over 66,000 children suffer severe malnutrition as a result of Israel’s blockade and systematic targeting of food supplies. “This is not war—it is extermination,” he said bluntly, decrying what he called the international community’s “criminal inaction.”
The activist also criticized African nations considering normalization with Israel, arguing that such moves betray Africa’s anti-colonial principles. “To embrace apartheid Israel is to betray Africa’s own anti-colonial history,” he asserted, invoking the founding tenets of the Organization of African Unity, which once staunchly opposed settler colonialism.
Balakazi reserved sharp criticism for Christian churches, accusing them of complicit silence amid Zionist distortions of scripture. “There is no biblical justification for genocide. Jesus stood with the oppressed—where are the churches now as Gaza’s children cry for bread?” he asked, urging Christian leaders to speak out.
He concluded with a call to action: for trade unions to sever ties with Israeli companies, for students to boycott academic institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid, and for Africans to wear the keffiyeh not as a fashion statement but as a revolutionary symbol of resistance.
“Palestine’s struggle is Africa’s struggle,” Balakazi said. “We who endured slavery and colonialism cannot stay silent. No one is free until all are free.”
The event concluded with chants of “Free Palestine!” as attendees vowed to sustain pressure for justice. Both speakers emphasized that solidarity must move beyond rhetoric and symbolism. “The time for passive mourning is over,” Balakazi said. “The Nakba continues, and so must our resistance.”
As the conflict in Gaza rages on, with a death toll surpassing 20,000 and entire neighborhoods leveled, the words spoken in Harare resonate beyond the room, echoing a global call for justice, accountability, and an end to decades of suffering.
