The ongoing catastrophe of Zionism, and the enduring resistance of the Palestinian people
Today we join Palestinians in marking the Nakba, the catastrophe of land theft and ethnic cleansing committed by the Israeli military and early Zionists militias around the time of Israel’s establishment in 1948. As Palestinians have said for years, the Nakba never ended. For 78 years, Palestinians have lived with the ongoing ramifications of Zionist settler colonialism, manifested through illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide. Today, we are witnessing the capacity for devastation that Zionism yields when allowed to run rampant.
This year, the commemoration of the Nakba coincides with Jerusalem Day, when fascist Israeli youth march through the narrow streets of Jerusalem’s Old City as a show of colonial domination and violent anti-Palestinian racism. Jerusalem Day demonstrates the widespread, systematic dehumanization of Palestinians that undergirds Israeli apartheid and ongoing genocide, as citizens march unhindered through the streets chanting death to Arabs and may your village burn. Anti-Palestinian racism is not only tolerated, but popular, and feverishly celebrated with chilling explosions of violent speech and action.
In the West Bank, more than 160 Palestinians have been killed in the past year by either settlers or military. Around 900 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the October 2025 “ceasefire” alone, with Israel continuing to pulverize civilian infrastructure on both sides of the “yellow line”.
And it hasn’t stopped with Palestinians. Over the past year, Israel has expanded its catastrophic mark on the broader region, in pursuit of an expansionist and messianic “Greater Israel” project. 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, with Israel continuing to carry out attacks despite a so-called ceasefire agreement, demolishing entire villages in the southern region of the country. The Israeli military has led hundreds of illegal incursions in Syria and established military posts with the clear intention to stay. Israeli politicians such as Minister Bezalel Smotrich have openly stated that Israel intends to expand its borders and permanently occupy additional stolen lands. Meanwhile, its joint bombing campaign of Iran with the US continues.
The ongoing Nakba would not be possible without the funding and complicity of major world powers such as the US, but also middle powers like Canada. Since Zionism’s inception, it has relied on the support of Western regimes to fund and enable its colonization of Palestine. While the current Canadian government has stepped up its rhetoric somewhat in response to Israel’s war crimes, most notably in Lebanon, its failure to follow its words up with meaningful action to hold Israel to account makes it complicit. As UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has written, the “ongoing genocide in Gaza is a collective crime, sustained by the complicity of influential Third States”, Canada included.
As Jewish allies who stand in solidarity with Palestinians and their struggle for liberation, we take it as our responsibility to confront Jewish supremacy and anti-Palestinian racism in our communities, to challenge Zionist whitewashing of history, and to organize in support of Palestinian rights to self-determination and return.
Nakba day is both a day of commemoration for atrocities committed and a commitment to justice for Palestinians. It is a stark reminder of the longstanding and ongoing nature of Israel’s settler colonial project, and of Palestinian sumud, steadfastness, in the face of it. It is a rallying cry for all of us who stand in solidarity with Palestinians and others in the region to do everything in our power to bring this catastrophe to an end.