It’s the 75th anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ – Britain needs to acknowledge its role

Britain’s role in Palestinian displacement is not restricted to its actions in the 20th century, writes Leanne Mohamad

The Nakba saw the beginning of an ongoing process of dispossession, violence and settler-colonialism that is deeply felt to this day (AFP via Getty Images)

Today, on the anniversary of the Nakba, or “day of catastrophe”, we commemorate the marking of 75 years of a continuous trauma Palestinians are still living through.

I think of my grandparents, who in May 1948, were forcibly displaced from their home in Haifa, Palestine by Zionist militias, and made refugees in Lebanon.

My grandparents, like the hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians who were exiled in the Nakba, thought it would only be a few days, maybe weeks, or at most a few months before their return. But three quarters of a century later, they still live in Burj el-Shemali refugee camp in South Lebanon, waiting to exercise their right of return.