A FRIDAY JUMU’AH READ-OUT

 

The following message has been prepared by the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa for delivery in masājid, on Friday 16 May 2025, as part of the Day of the Nakba, observed internationally on the 15th of May

 

The “Nakba” is an Arabic word for “catastrophe.” The catastrophe being witnessed today in the Gaza Genocide, and the war crimes taking place in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) of West Bank and East Jerusalem, started in 1948, when a mass displacement of Palestinians resulted in their loss of homes and land. Over 750,000 Palestinians were systematically driven off from their homeland and have not returned since. An estimated 9 million Palestinians live either as refugees or displaced persons, abroad or within the OPT.

 

The reality of the continuing Nakba remains vivid as evidenced by conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, in the following five ways:

 

1. Forced Displacement through Military and Discriminatory Means:

Earlier this month, Israel bombed Gaza’s Nasser Hospital killing patients, reporters, mothers and children. Thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee yet again, as a repeat play of the reality of the past 20 months. In 1948, Zionist terror squads and militia attacked villages, expelled Palestinians through direct attacks, home demolitions, psychological warfare. Mass home demolitions is the staple of Israel’s onslaught on the West Bank where refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem have seen fresh displacements of tens of thousands of Palestinians. The UN humanitarian office report that over 600 homes had been rendered inhabitable, in Jenin alone, between the start of the year and March 2025.

 

2. Military Violence Targeting Civilians:

Atrocities are used to instil terror in efforts to depopulate Palestinian areas. Israel replicates the massacres of 1948 such as what happened at Deir Yassin and over 500 other Palestinian villages, in efforts to ethnically-cleanse Palestinians lands. This year, Israel has conducted multiple executions and abductions, during raids in localities around the West Bank. It has been argued that the toll on Gaza is more than double the 52,000-official figure of fatalities, the majority of whom are women and children.

 

3. Systematic Control over Land and Resources:

The Nakba intended to create a demographic advantage of the Jewish minority through the exclusion of Palestinians. The over 3000 trucks of relief supplies blockaded at Rafah Crossing and the limiting of aid leading to thirst, hunger and starvation among Palestinians in Gaza is a magnified mirror image of the checkpoints in the West Bank, where illegal settlements create Bantustan-modelled pieces of disconnected and isolated pockets of land for Palestinians, a fragmentation that goes back all the way to 1948.

 

4. Destruction of Civilian Infrastructure:

The targeting of civilian infrastructure in Gaza such as schools, hospitals and designated “safe zones” is a deliberate strategy aimed at the destabilisation of the Palestinian society. It has only grown in scale in the 77 years of the Nakba. The destruction of Palestinian villages in 1948 was to ensure that Palestinians did not return. Besides Gaza, Israel today seeks to erase all Palestinian presence in the Occupied Territories by bulldozing homes and neighbourhoods in the West Bank, where places such as Qalqiliya, Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem currently face some of the worst of such ethnic-cleansing operations of the continuing Nakba, in making them uninhabitable.

 

5. Sustaining of Humanitarian Crises and Weaponization of Aid:

In imposing collective punishment, Israel does not only withhold from Palestinians food, water and block the channels of aid, it also deprives thousands of Palestinian children of education by closing schools and access to healthcare. Israel even confiscates corpses of the martyred in order to humiliate Palestinians and beat them into submission. These tactics have continued, since 1948.

 

The True Face of Zionism:

It is becoming clear to many that all along, it was the goal of the Zionists to create circumstances and myths for the expulsion of Palestinians. What has changed is the increased intensity of the brazen manner in which such intentions have become mainstream policy, that is now unashamedly publicised by top government officials.

 

Our Role and Responsibility:

The Nakba remains both a historical and a present-day reality. Our solidarity with Palestine has never been as crucial as it is today. This moment demands a sense of urgency in order to stop the continuing displacement, resource-deprivation and dehumanisation through instruments of blockade, massacres and destructions of livelihoods.

 

It is our responsibility to:

 

• Complement the remarkable Palestinian resilience and steadfastness with faith and hope. Even in the darkest hours of the 77 years of the continuing Nakba, Palestinians have remained resolute in their noble fight against Zionist oppression.

 

• Return to Allah seeking forgiveness and remaining loyal to Him, so that our transgressions do not become the cause of pain and suffering of any part of the body of the Ummah. Deeds of virtue and supplications to Allah for relief should be part of our daily devotions.

 

• Familiarise ourselves with the history of the Land of Palestine, its centrality in Islam and the ways in which we can contribute towards much-needed humanitarian relief and the liberation of the land and its people.

 

• Advocate for, and remain active participants in initiatives that appeal to various stakeholders, at local, national as well as international level, to ensure that Palestine is free, starting with the ending of the continuing Nakba.

 

May Allah emancipate the Occupied Palestinian Lands and send down His mercy, and help to the Ummah. Āmīn.