The Nakba — catastrophe — commemorated on May 15, is not only a past event but an ongoing reality shaping our faith and identity. It is a wound carried across generations, marked by loss, displacement and steadfastness. In this story, we both encounter God and struggle to find God — present in suffering, yet at times painfully hidden.
Remembering is not easy. It is not always safe to speak, to name what has happened and what continues to unfold. We have written so much, told our stories again and again, raised our voices — yet the kind of change that touches daily life often feels distant. Still, on May 15, we are reminded of the danger of silence. We fear forgetting, and we fear what happens if the voices of Palestinians made refugees are no longer heard. We also fear truly listening — to the cries from demolished homes, refugee camps, tents in Gaza, villages in the West Bank facing settler violence and the darkness of military prisons — because listening demands something from us.
We live between a past Nakba and an ongoing one, between the voices of older generations and the urgency of the present. Ours is not a single story, but a chorus that refuses to disappear.
As the war on Gaza deepens our wounds, it feels like another chapter is being written before our eyes. We move from one trauma to another, like moving from one cave to the next — searching for shelter and breath. Yet even there, we keep writing. On the walls, we leave our grief, memory and stubborn hope. We plan, endure, resist. We gather what remains and sing, even as the danger outside does not pass.
Faith, then, becomes both lament and defiance — crying out in pain, yet refusing despair. Even when the road is unclear, we keep praying, trusting that God is with us, and holding to the belief that justice is the only path to a real and lasting peace.
Friday, May 15, marks the 78th anniversary of al-Nakba. Arabic for “the catastrophe,” it refers to the fact that over 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians were violently driven from their homes and over 500 Palestinian villages were destroyed to make way for the 1948 establishment of the State of Israel. The reality of the Nakba, however, is that it never ended.
Currently, the Palestinian people have never found themselves or their survival more at risk, as an accelerated and increasingly brutal process of apartheid, dispossession, and genocide threatens the erasure of Palestinian society, culture, and history. Meanwhile, all of this is being underwritten by illegitimate theologies and belief systems which serve to provide ideological cover for extreme violence and Palestinian displacement.
As such, Nakba Day is about centering and amplifying the Palestinian experience, shining a light upon and refusing to allow the world to forget, silence, or ignore the truth of the Palestinian experience. So, as our colleagues, friends, and family in Palestine resiliently stand against expulsion, persecution, and erasure, your advocacy within your community and among your networks is essential to the pursuit of a just peace and the preservation of an Indigenous Palestinian presence in the Holy Land. NAKBA DAY 78: A SOLIDARITY TOOLKIT
Omar Haramy of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:
Helen Heinzen, Mission Specialist, Stewardship and Funds Development, Administrative Services Group
Lorraine Henry, Director, Advocacy, Plan Operations, The Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Our Father, stir the conscience of the nations and awaken people of conscience. Let law be upheld and justice be done. Break the silence of the world’s majority and of those who delay what is right. Give us courage — bring to light and hold accountable all who obstruct justice. Strengthen us to rise, to walk, to return — not with the violence that forced us out but with solidarity, community and nonviolence. Walk with us until our exile ends in home.
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