YWCA of Palestine Action Alert: Al-Nakba Day 2016
68th Anniversary of Al Nakba-May 15, 2016
No one puts their children in a boat, unless the water is safer than the land.
-From “Home,” by Warsan Shire
We remember over 68 years of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice. Today there are more than five million Palestinian refugees in the world; some have been displaced or disposed for the second or third time.
Most refugees who fled Palestine in 1948 came from all parts of the country and fled to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Later another 100,000 fled from Syrian controlled Golan Heights into other parts of Syria. Palestinian refugees have been barred from entering Jordan since 2013 and Lebanon since May 2014. This has meant that many refugees in Syria have been forced to stay in Syria even though they are in active areas of the conflict. At present there are over 560,000 registered refugees in Syria according UNRWA. Many have fled again due to recent bombing and find themselves again risking their lives in the Mediterranean to flee violence and war. They make up a substantial part of the largest refugee crisis since 1950.
Thus, on this anniversary The National YWCA of Palestine invites you to remember not only those who were dispossessed in 1948, 1967, and the occupation of the Golan but to remember all refugees fleeing today,and in particular our Palestinian sisters and brothers who are once again fleeing their homes.
We ask that you join us in asking for their protection and their freedom to have lives of dignity and security. We ask you to do this by taking the following actions:
- Recognize the Syrian Palestinians as refugees not as migrants;
- Demand your country to allow them to cross borders or settle;
- Continue to demand the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees as an essential nonnegotiable right;
- Support our Fabric of Our Lives Advocacy Project and our programs with refugee women and their children.