Calls for Palestinian self-determination, right to return at Nakba Day event in Moncton

A coalition of activists gathered in downtown Moncton on Saturday to mark Nakba Day, commemorating the beginning of the large-scale expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land that accompanied the founding of Israel. 

Citizens for Peace joined with Labour for Palestine Menahkwesk/Saint John, the Palestine Solidarity Committee of Saint John, New Brunswickers for Justice & Peace for Palestine, and Independent Jewish Voices-New Brunswick for the event.  

It began with a rally in front of Moncton city hall, followed by a march through the city leading to Central United Church for a screening of The Voice of Hind Rajab. The 2025 docudrama depicts the Red Crescent’s response to the Israeli military’s 2024 killing of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip.

“We are coming together to show support for the Palestinian people and to draw attention to the fact that Nakba wasn’t just in 1948, Nakba is ongoing,” an organizer said in a statement. “Gaza is now witnessing a genocide with food, water and aid being denied by Israel. And in many ways, Canada is complicit in this.” 

Sarah Kardash, a member of the New Brunswick chapter of Independent Jewish Voices, called out the federal government for its political support of Israel while condemning Zionist charities based in Canada whose activities include “providing tax receipts to Canadians whose donations finance Palestinian dispossession and death.” 

“As Jewish allies we take it as our responsibility to confront Jewish supremacy and anti-Palestinian racism in our communities, to challenge Zionist whitewashing of history, and to organize in support of the Palestinian rights to self-determination and return,” Independent Jewish Voices Canada said in a statement. 

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East also issued a statement Friday calling on the federal government to “end its complicity in Israeli occupation and apartheid,” noting that Canada has continued to arm Israel amid the genocide in Gaza. 

“As we witness Israel’s application of annexation plans in the occupied West Bank, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the depopulation and destruction of villages in southern Lebanon, it is clear that the Nakba which began on May 15, 1948 has never ended,” the group stated. 

In recent days, hundreds of people taking part in the Global Samud Flotilla were abducted by Israeli forces as they attempted to bring aid to Gaza by sea, including at least 11 Canadians. Most of the Canadians taking part in the mission have decided to go on hunger strike, according to Global Samud Canada. 

Nakba Day is observed around the world annually on or around May 15. Israel has carried out a mass displacement of Palestinians since 1948, denying the legal right of return to millions of people. 

More than six million displaced people and their descendants are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees following the events known as the Nakba, an Arabic word meaning catastrophe. In the Gaza Strip, refugees represent most of the population.

By 2020, Israel controlled at least 85 per cent of historic Palestine, while Palestinians held the remaining land under strict Israeli restrictions, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Palestinians routinely face lethal violence, demolitions of their homes and villages, apartheid policies, imprisonment in the military prison system, torture, and the denial of basic human rights, according to organizations such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. 

Editor’s note: Sarah Kardash Independent Jewish Voices-New Brunswick is a member of the NB Media Co-op board of directors.