by Rabbi Cat Zavis <rabbicat@beyttikkun.org> | May 15, 2026
Today is Nakba Day. A day to commemorate the 1948 Nakba in Palestine, when 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed to create the so-called Jewish State of Israel.
Entire villages and sacred sites were bulldozed and destroyed and Jewish Israeli towns, villages, parks, and cultural sites were created in their place. In an ironic move, Israel built a “Museum of Tolerance” built on top of a destroyed Arab Muslim cemetery.
In 1948, 200,000 Palestinians were forcibly relocated from their homes and villages in what is now Israel to Gaza. 70% of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees from 1948.
The only way to create a state with a majority of Jews was to ethnically cleanse the indigenous population already living there. They were an inconvenience that Zionists wanted and needed to get rid of to make way for the Jewish State.
I am reading Molly Crabapple’s book Here Where We Live is Our Country. The book chronicles the history and development of the Bund, a Jewish socialist, anti-zionist labor party in the Pale of Settlement and documents the pogroms and attacks on Jews at that time.
As I read about the horrific attacks on Jews at the time, images of the genocide in Gaza, and the ethnic cleansing in Palestine, both in the Nakba in 1948 and the continuing Nakba today, flash before my eyes.
On May 9th, I participated in an Interfaith Pilgrimage for Palestine in Oakland. We walked from Oakland City Hall to the Port of Oakland and ended at the Oakland airport to raise awareness about and call for an end to Oakland’s complicity in the genocide and ongoing Nakba, by demanding an arms embargo and an end to the shipment of arms from the Oakland airport to Israel. You can learn more about the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo here and watch footage of the pilgrimage here.
We chanted “Palestine will be free, Palestine will be free, We will not avert our eyes, Palestine will be free.” We must not avert our eyes. We must look at what is happening and do everything in our power to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing. If you ask yourself who you would have been or what you would have done during the Holocaust, you know the answer based on what you are doing today. This moment calls us to turn towards the genocide and ethnic cleansing and do what we can to stop it. Every call, letter, protest, conversation matters. There are plenty of opportunities to deepen your understanding of the history of Palestine and the Nakba from 1948 (really before 1948) to today. Here is a link to a wonderful presentation by the Green Olive Tours – a conversation with Zochrot and ADRID about the Nakba and current efforts to advance Palestinian return.
Jews must honestly look at and critique the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine and commit to the long, hard journey of reparations, repair, the right of return, liberation, justice, and dignity for Palestinians from the river to the sea. Then and only then will Jews and Palestinians live in safety and peace from the river to the sea.
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