#NakbaDay: Rasmea & George Khoury May 14 & Chicago Palestinian car caravan May 15

The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is organizing two days worth of events in commemoration of Al-Nakba, which we call “The Catastrophe” – the forced exile, displacement, and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians by zionist, terrorist gangs from the end of 1947 until the middle of 1949. In May of 1948, Israel was officially “established” as a state on land stolen from and cleansed of Palestinians.

International law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights speak to the right of refugees in general to return to their homes and lands, and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 speaks specifically to this right for Palestinian refugees, but Israel and its U.S. patron have denied between 5 and 6 million Palestinians (the original refugees plus their descendants, what is now considered the largest refugee population in the world) the Right to Return to 1948 Palestine.

As we mark 72 years since Al-Nakba, and continue to experience The Catastrophe every day in occupied and colonized Palestine, we will resist the new Israeli government’s plans to annex huge areas of land in the West Bank and Jerusalem. We will fight to secure the release of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners who are in mortal danger because of COVID-19.

And we will continue to demand the thawabet, the constants of the Palestine national movement – the right to resist, by any means necessary, Israeli colonization and occupation of all Palestinian and Arab lands; the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people; the right to an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital, on the entire land of historical Palestine; and the sacred Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Join us!

1) Thursday, May 14th – A webinar with Rasmea Odeh and George Khoury, moderated by Suzanne Adely – 1:30 PM Central Time / 2:30 PM Eastern Time at facebook.com/USPCN.

2) Friday, May 15th – A Palestinian Car Caravan. We will gather at 1:30 PM Central Time at the AAAN, 9838 S. Roberts Road, Palos Hills, Illinois, and leave at 2 PM to drive through the Palestinian community of the southwest suburbs of Chicago before heading to the Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago! Bring Palestinian flags that affix to your cars, or the small ones you can wave outside your cars while we’re driving! FB event page.

3) Also on Friday, May 15th, from 1 PM – 3 PM Central | 2 PM – 4 PM Eastern, join our twitter storm using #NakbaDay #WeWillReturn عائدون#

Sample content: bit.ly/USPCNNakbaDay2020

4) Same day, May 15th, call your U.S. House Representative and demand they support the No Way to Treat a Child bill (H.R. 2407) and #EndGazaBlockade Now! Find your Rep here: bit.ly/HouseOfRep

My name is _______, and I am calling to ask that U.S. Rep. _________ sign on to the No Way to Treat a Child bill (H.R. 2407). There is no more urgent time than now to release Palestinian children from Israeli prisons. The Israeli government has a record of neglecting prisoners’ rights, especially the rights of Palestinian children, and has not provided adequate healthcare during this COVID-19 pandemic.

I am also asking the Rep. to take a stand and demand an end to the blockade on Gaza now. Gaza has been under land, sea, and air blockade for 14 years, and is in danger of being rapidly ravaged by COVID-19. Israel must end its siege and allow the people of Gaza to live!

5) Share your story: on all social media platforms, post a photo of yourself holding a sign with the name of a 1948 Palestinian village that has been displaced/erased, or of your own village, and tag @uspcn.

Until Liberation and Return,

USPCN