About the Ceremony

The Joint Nakba Remembrance Ceremony is a unique opportunity to commemorate the pain and tragedy of the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic), when in 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, became refugees, and had their villages and cities destroyed. In Israel, even mentioning the Nakba is completely taboo, however, Combatants for Peace believes that peace and reconciliation involve a sincere and honest reckoning with this history that didn’t end in 1948 but continues until this day.

Combatants for Peace understands that to end the occupation and find a solution to the conflict, we must listen with empathy to each other’s stories and acknowledge injustice to achieve true liberation. Combatants for Peace was born out of the personal experiences of its Israeli and Palestinian founders who were previously actively involved in violence against the other side. They share, “We do not seek to deny our violent past but rather work with it, process it, and turn it from a site of conflict into a basis for joint, constructive action. This is how we perceive the history of this land and of the two peoples who co-inhabit it. Our ceremonies are intended to carry the audience—Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals—to past traumas and their lingering legacies, then to the present, in order to build a just, peaceful, and equitable future.”

2024 Ceremony

In the aftermath of October 7th, a second Nakba has been unfolding in Gaza, with over 34,000 Palestinians killed. Of the 2.2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced and many of their homes have been destroyed by Israel's brutal attacks. Roughly 1.3 million displaced Palestinians are currently sheltering in Rafah, a city built to host only 300,000, and over 1 million Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing catastrophic food insecurity and acute starvation. For Palestinians, the violence and mass displacement brings back memories of 1948 but indeed the Nakba never ended, it has continued for the past 76 years. This year, we will center the ceremony around the theme of “liberation” - how do we liberate ourselves from occupation, oppression, and violence? What does liberation look like and how do we begin to heal from our past and present trauma? Join us for the Nakba Remembrance Ceremony, which will be held on May 15th 2024 at 8:00pm Jerusalem | 6:00pm London | 1:00pm New York | 10:00am Los Angeles.