Remembering the life of French anarchist and writer Clémence-Louise Michel (29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905)

 

French anarchist,  and writer ,whose heroism during the Paris Commune insurrection and subsequent imprisonments, and example of selfless devotion to her ideals, made her one of the most celebrated female revolutionaries of her time  Clémence-Louise Michel  also known by her nickname of Enjolras,  was  born  on May 29, 1830, in Vroncourt (Haute-Marne), at the Château de Vroncourt in Northeast France, the illegitimate daughter of a serving-maid, Marianne Michel, and the son of the house, Laurent Demahis.

Raised by her paternal grandparents, Michel received a liberal education at home and began corresponding with Victor Hugo as a young girl. Supported by her paternal grandparents until her thirties, 

Some  traits from her childhood stand out. She loved animals of every kind and always kept numerous pets. The unthinking cruelty of the peasants toward animals sickened her. She later declared that "the origin of my revolt against the powerful was my horror at the tortures inflicted on animals." The other trait was her habit of giving away to the needy whatever might be at hand, whether hers or not. She seemed devoid of any proprietary sense and as a child would steal food or money from her grandparents (who were in narrow straits) to give away, even after warnings. Her sympathy for any sufferers, human or animal, simply overrode ordinary prudence or even regard for the generally accepted rights of others.

Between 1844 and 1850, Louise Michel witnessed the deaths of her grandfather, Étienne-Charles Demahis, her father, Laurent Demahis, and then her grandmother, Louise-Charlotte Demahis. The need to work for a living then arose. 

She spent three months at a boarding school in Lagny-sur-Marne to prepare for the teaching certificate, a rare profession accessible to the poor if they wished to escape their social condition.

She failed the exam, but met the man she admired most: Victor Hugo. She passed the exam on her second attempt in Chaumont in 1852. Once in a position in Audeloncourt (Haute-Marne), where she opened a private school, she distinguished herself through her thoroughly modern pedagogy. 

She rejected punishments inflicted on students in favor of instilling a sense of duty and a love of learning. Her method seemed to work. She wrote plays that the schoolgirls performed. Ahead of her time, she introduced nature classes  teaching about plants and animals. She didn't hesitate to bring in plant specimens and even snakes or birds. Some animals lived at the school; the students were responsible for taking good care of them.

Already rebellious, she refused to swear allegiance to the Empire and instead opened a private school in Audeloncourt (in 1853) and then in Millières (in 1855). She always wore a black dress with a red rose as the only embellishment. Black and red, not coincidentally the colors of anarchism . And Louise Michel was a comitted anarchist . Louise Michel adopted the black dress with the wide crinoline skirt around 1852, when Napoleon III seized power to proclaim the Second French Empire. In mourning for lost freedom, the headstrong Louise henceforth dressed exclusively in black.

Michel moved to Paris in 1865 and opened a school for working class children in Montmartre, where she taught and demonstrated liberal and revolutionary ideas to her pupils. It was there that she developed mutual aid programs in her community, teaching underprivileged women to read and write, connecting them with resources and representing women in legal and administrative matters.  

It was also during this time that she became more closely involved in the radical political movements which developed in the tumultuous 1860s in Paris. She was actively involved with André Léo’s Société pour la Revendication des Droits Civils de la Femme where she advocated for girls’ education on a national level. 

It  was in  Paris that   she met Jules Vallès, Eugène Varlin, and especially Théophile Ferré, with whom she formed a close bond. She contributed to opposition newspapers and wrote poetry. Through her political activism as well as through her poetry and plays, Michel imagined a radical society where women and girls were afforded the same opportunities as men.

On January 22, 1871 , dressed as a National Guardsman, she participated in the shooting at the Hôtel de Ville against the government, which she accused of cowardice. She was an enthusiastic participant in the Commune of 1871, which she saw as an opportunity to live out her ideals of liberal education for young women. 

The Paris Commune https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2023/03/vive-la-commune-marking-anniversary-of.html was a radical socialist government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It emerged after France’s humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the collapse of Napoleon III’s Second Empire. The Commune tried to establish a more democratic and egalitarian society, but it was brutally crushed by the French army in what became known as the Bloody Week.

Michel was the outstanding female soldier of the Commune: "I love the smell of powder," she confessed. In the uniform of the 61st Battalion of the National Guard, she fought with utter disregard for her life, earning the affection of the soldiers though not of most officers, who disliked having women on battlefields. 

Michel  in  uniform 

Tireless, she also organized ambulance nurses to remove the wounded from the field, nursed soldiers herself, continued with the Montmartre Vigilance Committee, presided over a "Club de la Révolution" which passed all manner of radical proposals (including a total revamping of all laws and the judiciary), sent in ideas for educational reform, continued her school and refuge, and once even slipped through the lines to Versailles and back to prove that her (rather harebrained) proposal to assassinate French president Louis Thiers was feasible. 

She was not, however, a high-level leader, e.g., on the Central Committee of the "Union of Women for the Defense of Paris and the Care of the Wounded" led by the Marxist Elizabeth Dmitrieff , or a "captain of guerrillas" as the government later charged.   

Michel fought to the last when Montmartre fell early in "Bloody Week" (May 21–28), barely escaped death or capture, but gave herself up (May 23) to release her mother, who was being held hostage for her capture. 

 

Arrest of Louise Michel after the Paris Commune, May 1871 – Jules Girardet 

She endured the horrors of the march to Versailles and the encampment on the Sartory plain, was singled out with some other "ringleaders" and twice examined by a court-martial, and finally was tried (December 16), convicted of armed rebellion (after more serious charges were dropped), and condemned to life under guard in a prison colony. She had admitted only the minimum at first, but especially after her pleas failed to save one of the Commune's leaders, Théophile Ferré, she defiantly confessed everything and even claimed responsibility for acts she had not committed. 

She probably had fallen in love with Ferré (though he did not reciprocate), and his execution (November 28) left a permanent wound in her heart. 

Louise Michel wrote the following poem in honor and memory of Théophile Ferré,  who refused to recognize a military court’s right to judge him after the defeat of the Commune, and was sentenced to death and executed.  

Red Carnation – A Poem for Théophile Ferré

If one day to the cold cemetery I were to go, 

brothers, cast on your sister, 

like a final hope, 

some red carnations in bloom.  

In the final days of the empire, 

as the people awoke, 

red carnation, it was your smile 

that told us all was reborn.  

And now, go blossom in the shade 

of dark and drear prisons, 

go blossom near the somber captive,

and tell him we love him.  

Tell him that in these changing times 

everything belongs to the future; 

that the victor with his pallid brow 

can die as easily as the vanquished.   

At her trial, she made a sensational appearance garbed and veiled in black, a spectral symbol of 25,000 dead Communards, accepted no attorney, challenged the judges to put her to death, and refused to appeal her conviction.

Poem by Louise Michel to the Commission of Pardons, 1871 

To the Commission of Pardons  

Auberive prison, November 28, 1872, 7 a.m  

Murderers, can you hear time’s bell? 

In any event, I’m content with this. 

We suffered but we saved our cause. 

So many cynically accumulated crimes, coldly done, so much 

cowardice and inability widely expose you. 

Bravo, Gentlemen! The white orgy is complete! 

Can you take your good name away from here, no! 

In history you will always be the commission for the “coup de grâce,”

executioner’s valet! Gentlemen, you must remember that we will be afraid, and we will laugh at you because you are such horrible, grotesque people.  

Original French transcript A

la Commission des Grâces  

Centrale d’Auberive, 28 novembre 1872, 7 heures du matin  

Assassins, Entendez-vous l’heure qui sonne ? 

Eh bien, je me félicite de ce qui s’est passé. 

Nous avons souffert mais la cause est sauvée. 

Tant de crimes cyniquement entassés, froidement accomplis ; tant 

de lâchetés et d’incapacités vous démasquent largement. 

Bravo, Messieurs ! l’orgie blanche est complète ! 

Otez maintenant vos noms de là ! impossible ! 

Vous serez à jamais pour l’histoire de la commission du coup de grâce, les valets du bourreau ! Souvenez-vous bien Messieurs, on aura horreur et on rira, 

car vous êtes horribles et vous êtes grotesques.

Charged with attempting to overthrow the government, at her trial she dared the judges to execute her, saying ‘Since it seems that every heart that beats for freedom has no right to anything but a little lump of lead, I demand my share. If you let me live, I shall never cease to cry for vengeance and l shall avenge my brothers. If you are not cowards, kill me!’. 

The authorities declined and while some 20,000 Communards were executed, Michel was among the 10,000 who were deported, in her case to New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. 

Louise Michel in exile in New Caledonia.

Even in exile in New Caledonia, where she lived for eight years, Michel found ways to advocate for marginalized groups. Befriending the Kanak indigenous people she met, she encouraged them to revolt against the French colonial power and contributed to the first French-Kanak dictionary. 

On her return to France 7,000 Parisians turned out to welcome her home.Her nickname, the “Red Virgin,” played an important role in the dynamics of disqualification of women’s speech and ideas. Louise Michel’s opponents referenced her alleged virginity as soon as she got back to Paris: she was variously called “the virgin of the Commune,” “the Maid of Belleville” and “the petroleum virgin.”  

That virginity became the proof of her deviance. In the novel Gil Blas, one finds the following lines about Louise Michel: “She’s not pretty, and they say she’s a virgin. That’s bad for sanity! Virginity is the mother of dementia.” 

As their reasoning went, being ugly, Louise Michel couldn’t entice a man; without marriage or motherhood, she trained her affection on the struggle for civil rights. In 1886, a contributor to La Petite Gazette defended that hypothesis of frustration in these terms: “You see, that ardent and perverted soul doesn’t know what to do with its immense need for affection, it would have required a husband to occupy her heart, and children, who are women’s great consolation. A married Louise Michel would have meant one less ‘great female citizen’ and one more happy homemaker; and we would not have been worse off.” 

Originally used by her critics, the Red Virgin nickname offered a two-fold justification for Louise Michel’s deviance: her ugliness and her virginity. Between the lines, the goal was always to discredit feminist demands and revolutionary struggle in general by discrediting her, an icon of those struggles. 

Louise also draws, writes poems and ( political ) essays. She uses the pseudonym Enjolras . That fictional character, 'a soldier of democracy, the marble beloved of Liberty', comes from the epic Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, with whom she corresponds and who 'glorifies' her in his poem Viro Major . There are even rumors that they had an amorous liaison.

Her poetry follows the dramas, joys, and adventures of her extraordinary life: poems-cries uttered from the prisons of Versailles in an attempt to save the man she loved; expansive and exalted poems written during the cyclones of New Caledonia, and more directly social and political pieces written during the years of feverish propaganda throughout France and abroad. 

Anarchist comrades and/or friends often asked her for occasional poems, which she composed with pleasure: for weddings (Verlaine's, for example), births, and deaths (Blanqui's, for example). Absorbed by her commitment to political groups, she had little involvement in literary movements (she was simply a member of the Union of Poets in 1862 and, on October 20, 1886, she participated in a literary conference for the benefit of the Decadents). 

But we must acknowledge the abundance and originality of the poetry of the woman whom Verlaine hailed as "the hoarse and fragile Muse/Of the Poor" and whose verses Hugo described as "mysterious and sweet." 

Her poems served an effective function for her, like songs (which she also composed in great numbers), like "La Marseillaise," of which she wrote several versions, and "The Internationale": the poems had to provoke the emotion that led to action or strike the enemy like a rifle bullet.

 In 1890 she was arrested again and after an attempt to commit her to a mental asylum she moved to London with her friend Charlotte Vauvelle.

She continued to give speeches and conduct revolutionary activity in London, France and across Europe, attending anarchist meetings, leading demonstrations and speaking to huge crowds. 

She was friends with the Pankhurst family and made a particular impression on a young Sylvia Pankhurst.   

At first Michel lived in ‘Petite France’, just north of Soho and the traditional quarter of French political refugees but in 1893 she moved to 15 Ardsley Terrace, Placquett Rd, now Copleston Road East Dulwich. Her house was at the Grove Vale end, though it no longer exists. 

The houses cost £50 pa to rent, contained six rooms, a washhouse, and gardens front and back. The residents at the time were ‘comfortably off with good average earnings’ and were mostly clerks. Michel was said to be on the brink of poverty most of the time but while about half the houses in the road were in multiple occupation, she was able to rent the whole house. 

Placquett Road was probably fairly cheap at the time because it backed on to Camberwell council’s depot; the depot particularly impacted nos 11 and 13 - the Council bought both houses themselves. 

A journalist describes visiting her ‘small house near the station’ where the parlour had a piano, a few chairs, some photographs and a table on which stood several volumes by ‘prominent Anarchists’.  Michel quickly became a central figure in London’s international anarchist circles. Her time was spent in writing and protest and her speeches and articles were reprinted across the world. She also wrote her memoirs and a history of the Paris Commune while she lived here. 

She started the International Anarchist School in Fitzroy Square employing both exiled anarchists and pioneering educationalists as teachers, but the school closed when explosives were found in the basement. There is no evidence they were placed there by Michel and they may have been planted by an employee, Auguste Coulon, who was suspected of being a police spy. Louise was upset and felt herself surrounded by enemies: ‘I went back to East Dulwich in a most troubled frame of mind’.  

She joined the Peckham International Anarchist Group, marched in the London May Day parades, spoke at revolutionary meetings and may have spoken at the Peckham and Dulwich Radical Club on Rye Lane. She often contrasted Britain’s liberal atmosphere with France’s repressive stance saying, ‘in England the destitute can assemble and say openly what they think; or at least they can tell one another about their miseries unreservedly’.

 She also remarked that ‘the working classes find in England, under a monarchist regime, far more freedom than in Republican France’. 

Edith Thomas, Michel’s biographer, mentions that Michel was visited in East Dulwich by journalists who found Michel, now in her sixties, surrounded by cats, dogs and a parrot called Coco that used to cry ‘Vive l’anarchie!'.

 In December 1893 a New York Times journalist interviewed 'the notorious woman Anarchist, who occupies a little house at East Dulwich, a suburb of London'. 

In 1895 the papers reported that she was hard at work on a novel in her ‘quiet house in Dulwich’ and also preparing a lecture tour of America.   

Michel lived at Placquett Road until she moved to 25 Chesterfield Grove in 1899 where her neighbours were typically grocers, bakers, tobacconists and drapers, though unlike Placquett Rd the houses were mostly in single family occupation. 

By 1900 she was boarding at 8 Albion Villas Road in Sydenham and appears in the 1901 Census there as an ‘authoress’. She was living there with her long-time friend and nurse Charlotte Vauvelle, Charlotte’s father, Auguste, and Charlotte’s brother, Achille, a lithographic printer. Again, their neighbours were typically shopkeepers and clerks. By 1903 she was living in Dahomey St (now Rd) in Streatham.  

In 1904 Michel visited Algeria to advocate for an uprising against the French government. While there she became ill, returned to France and the following  yearin in the Hôtel Oasis in Marseille,tLouise Michel passed away on January 9, 1905. By this time, she was one of the most prominent figures of contemporary anarchism and was often mentioned in the same breath as Peter Kropotkin and Errico Malatesta. 

Shortly before her death, when returning from her exile in London, Michel had been dubbed "the angel of petrol", "the virago of the rabble" and "queen of the scum" by the conservative French press. In turn, Charles Ferdinand Gambon compared her to Jeanne d'Arc in reference to her role in the Paris Commune. This imagery was further propagandized by Edmond Lepelletier in 1911. 

Her funeral in Paris was attended by more than 100,000 people and memorial services were held all over France and in London. 

Louise Michel’s legacy lived on. She is remembered in Paris through a metro station, a square near Sacré-Cœur, and a stamp issued in her honor. Today, a commemorative plaque at the hotel honours her memory, and her grave in the cemetery of Levallois-Perret—a wealthy suburb of Paris—has become a pilgrimage site. 

At the time of her funeral, this suburb was still considered revolutionary ground.But her influence extends far beyond France. She is commemorated in the Louise Michel Sports Club in London, a radical sports club for people involved in the workers’ movement. The London-based Strawberry Thieves Socialist Choir sing ‘Danse de Bombe’, which Michel composed at the time of the Paris Commune. 

 Throughout her life, she fought for social equality, for education, for freedom, and for better living conditions for everyone. It is therefore no coincidence that the boat paid for by the British street artist Banksy to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean is named 'Louise Michel' .

She inspired feminist and anarchist movements worldwide, in the collective imagination.  proving that one woman’s courage could spark global change, .her commitment to social justice, her caring for all life, her passion for learning and teaching, her striving for women’s rights and democracy in general, her unselfish work on behalf of others, her strong moral stance, and her unfailing courage set a mark to inspire anyone.

Here  iis  a link  to  the  full text of "The Red Virgin: Memoirs Of Louise Michel" https://archive.org/stream/MichelRedVirginMemoirsOfLouiseMichel/Michel%20-%20Red%20Virgin%3A%20Memoirs%20Of%20Louise%20Michel_djvu.txt

Amnesty International Day

 

May 28th, 1961, marks a genuine milestone in post-war human rights activism born from outrage at political imprisonment. On this day  65  years ago in London Amnesty International was born. It began with an article by British lawyer Peter Benenson who had defended political prisoners in Hungary, South Africa, and Spain and who sought to establish a collective agency for the advancement of human rights.

The  article called The Forgotten Prisoners in The Observer, was inspired by the story of two Portuguese students reportedly jailed for raising a toast to liberty. 

This appeal, reprinted widely, launched what became Amnesty International. Benenson, with help from figures like Eric Baker, of the Religious Society of Friends and began assembling a coalition of writers, academics, and legal professionals. 

The response to that article exceeded anything the authors had expected, with letters and offers of support arriving from across Europe and beyond. What began as a one-year appeal rapidly transformed into a permanent organization with a clear mandate: research the facts, document the abuses, and bring public and political pressure to bear on governments that violated their citizens' basic rights. 

Amnesty International Day was formally established to mark the founding moment and keep public attention on the organization's ongoing mission. Unlike internationally codified observances (e.g., UN-declared days), Amnesty International Day functions primarily as: A mobilization mechanism A fundraising opportunity. A symbolic reaffirmation of normative commitments A transnational identity marker It is often linked to public campaigns, reports on human rights violations, and grassroots activism.  

The early years of  Amnesty were defined by letter-writing campaigns on behalf of individual prisoners, a tactic that proved surprisingly effective at drawing international attention to cases that governments would have preferred to keep quiet.  

The group would campaign equally across East, West, and the developing world, independent of any government or ideology.   Benenson explicitly warned that falling under the control of “one country, ideology or creed” would mean failure.   

By the end of 1961, the organization had formalized its mission to advocate for human rights, focusing on freeing prisoners of conscience, ensuring fair trials for  political  prisoners, and opposing torture and the death penalty.  

From 1961 to 1975 the chairman of AI was Seán MacBride, who was a corecipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize for Peace.  

Over the decades, Amnesty grew into a global movement.  By the 1970s, it had groups in dozens of countries and was instrumental in campaigns like the 1973 push against torture, leading to the UN’s 1984 Convention Against Torture. In 1977, Amnesty won the Nobel Peace Prize for its "defense of human dignity against torture and oppression." Its work expanded to include issues like women’s rights, refugee rights, and economic, social, and cultural rights, while maintaining a focus on impartiality and independence from governments or corporate interests.  

The organisation’s logo idea (the candle surrounded by barbed wire to represent a beacon of hope shining for prisoners of conscience trapped in oppressive conditions) stemmed from a Chinese proverb “It  is better to light a light than to curse the darkness.” 

Amnesty International remains one of the world’s largest human rights NGOs, with millions of supporters and a record of documenting abuses globally. However, it has faced substantial criticism for drifting from its founding emphasis on impartial, universal defence of basic rights toward more ideological positions.   

Critics, including NGO Monitor, Women's Rights Groups across the world, officials, and others, argue it applies disproportionate focus and harsher language towards (for example):  Women’s rights and sex-based protections, Amnesty has aligned with expansive gender identity frameworks, treating “trans rights” as integral to women’s rights and rejecting notions of conflict between them (e.g., on single-sex spaces or sports). 

Benenson largely withdrew from active leadership but later reconciled with Amnesty and occasionally supported its work; though he publicly disagreed with some later decisions. He continued human rights and other charitable efforts until his death in 2005.   

Amnesty itself "professionalised", and grew into the global monster it is today. Today,  Amnesty operates in over 150 countries, with millions of supporters. Its methods include research, advocacy, and mobilizing public pressure through campaigns, reports, and urgent actions to address human rights abuses worldwide. 

Its impact has been significant, with thousands of individuals freed due to its efforts, underscoring the organization's vital role in the ongoing fight against human rights abuses worldwide.  

The organization remains headquartered in London and continues to rely on its original tactic of letter-writing, now amplified by digital campaigns.

AI exposes human rights violations by governments, armed political groups, companies, and other nonstate actors in newsletters, annual reports, and background papers. It relies strongly on the worldwide distribution of “adoption groups,” each of which, staffed by three to eight persons, takes on a limited number of cases of prisoners of conscience and barrages the offending government with letters of protest until the prisoners are released. Other activities include organizing demonstrations and vigils, sponsoring human rights education, and circulating online petitions and alerts. 

The research department at AI’s London headquarters is in contact with human rights activists and other interested parties around the world and provides a network of information for all the organization’s publications and activities.   

The 2026 edition of Amnesty International’s annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, assesses national, regional and global developments across a wide range of human rights themes. It highlights how states have undermined the international rules-based system, hindering the resolution of problems that affect the lives of millions. It also identifies trends regarding armed conflicts, repression of dissent, discrimination, economic and climate injustice, the abrupt halt of humanitarian aid, and the misuse of technology. The report documents human rights concerns during 2025 in 144 countries, connecting global and regional issues and looking to the future. 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/0320/2026/en/

The organisation called on governments, to reject the politics of appeasement and collectively resist attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society, before this emerging order takes hold.   pressure. 

 “We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age. Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.   

“World leaders have been far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system. Their silence and inaction are inexcusable.”  Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International “The vast majority of states have been unwilling or unable to consistently denounce predatory acts by the USA, Russia, Israel or China, or to chisel out diplomatic solutions.  “World leaders have been far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system. Their silence and inaction are inexcusable. It is morally bankrupt and will bring nothing but retreat, defeat and the erasure of decades of hard-fought human rights gains.  “To appease aggressors is to pour fuel on a fire that will burn us all and scorch the future for generations to come,” said Agnès Callamard.   

Predatory attacks are accelerating the destruction of international law The State of the World’s Human Rights, and Amnesty International’s documentation so far this year, detail pervasive crimes under international law and mounting attacks on the international justice system, which are gravely harming the foundations that underpin human rights globally.  

Israel has maintained its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, despite the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, and its system of apartheid over Palestinians, while accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and taking steps toward annexation.  Israeli authorities have increasingly allowed or encouraged settlers to attack and terrorize Palestinians with impunity, and prominent officials have praised and glorified violence against Palestinians, including arbitrary arrests and the torture of detainees. 

The United States of America has committed over 150 extrajudicial executions by bombing boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and carried out an act of aggression against Venezuela in January 2026. Russia has intensified its aerial attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, while Myanmar’s military used motorized paragliders to drop explosive munitions on villages last year, killing dozens of civilians, including children.  

In early 2026, the USA and Israel’s unlawful use of force against Iran, in violation of the UN Charter, has triggered retaliatory Iranian strikes on Israel and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while Israel has escalated its attacks on Lebanon.  

From the killing of over 100 children in an unlawful US strike on a school in Iran, to the devastating attacks by all parties on energy infrastructure, the conflict has endangered the lives and health of millions of civilians and threatens to inflict vast, predictable and long-term civilian and environmental harm, impacting access to energy, healthcare, food and water across an already turbulent region and beyond.  

In Afghanistan, the Taliban escalated its predatory policies against the female population, with further bans prohibiting them from education, work and freedom of movement, while in Iran, the authorities massacred protesters in January 2026, in what was likely the most lethal such repression for decades.  Ramped-up assaults on civil society continue to spread around the world The proliferation of attacks on civil society and social movements deepened in 2025, with sustained efforts to silence and disempower human rights defenders, organizations and dissenters spreading to almost every part of the world.  Authorities in Nepal and Tanzania were particularly brazen in their unlawful use of lethal force to repress protests expressing political and socio-economic grievances. The governments of Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Kenya, the USA and Venezuela, among others, also violently repressed protests, criminalized dissent through counterterrorism and security laws, or used abusive policing tactics, enforced disappearances or extrajudicial executions. 

 US authorities launched an unlawful clampdown on migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, committing unnecessary and excessive use of force, racial profiling, arbitrary detention, and practices that amounted to torture and enforced disappearance. 

In Latin America, states such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela adopted or reformed legal frameworks that impose disproportionate controls on civil society organizations directly impacting their ability to operate, access resources, support communities and defend human rights.  

In a context dominated by the US president describing climate change as a “scam”, governments did nowhere near enough to address climate displacement, equitably transition away from fossil fuels, or adequately ramp up finance for climate action – even as the UN Environment Programme warned that the world is on track to reach 3°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.  Protesters, civil society and international bodies lead efforts to resist, disrupt and transform Undeterred by adversity, millions aound the world are resisting injustice and authoritarian practices.  

Throughout early 2026, demonstrators from Los Angeles to Minneapolis have organized street by street and block by block against violent and highly militarized US immigration enforcement raids.  

Mass demonstrations against Israel’s genocide spread around the world last year and humanitarians from over 40 countries launched flotillas to show solidarity with Palestinians. Global activism against the flow of arms to Israel expanded, with dockworkers in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Sweden seeking to disrupt arms shipment routes. Activism and legal pressure also led several states to restrict or ban arms exports to Israel. 

Hundreds of mostly young protesters faced off against security forces in Madagascar's capital on September 27, 2025 days after an anti-government demonstration erupted into clashes and looting. Police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse crowds at Thursday's protest, which was called to condemn persistent water and power cuts in the impoverished nation but descended into violence as stores were looted and buildings and cars set alight. 

 “From city streets to multilateral forums, 2025 brought powerful displays of resistance and solidarity from protesters, diplomats, political leaders and many others around the world. We must build on their example and courage and forge bold coalitions to reimagine, rebuild and re-centre the global order around human rights, the rule of law and universal values,” said Agnès Callamard.  “For the sake of humanity, the time to make history is now.”  Agnès Callamard “Let 2026 be the year we assert our agency and demonstrate that history is not merely something imposed upon us; it is ours to make. And for the sake of humanity, the time to make history is now.”

Amnesty International Day is less a fixed holiday than a strategic commemorative practice. It consolidates collective identity, mobilizes normative discourse, and reinforces the symbolic authority of human rights within global civil society. It illustrates how non-governmental organizations use ritualized temporality to sustain moral legitimacy in a fragmented international system.

 For 65 years, Amnesty International' have  been  documenting and exposing abuses, bringing violators to justice, freeing human rights defenders in prison.  Families caught in armed conflict. Refugees forced from their homes, tortured in prisons. Journalists jailed—or even killed—for doing their jobs. Children and parents wondering if they will survive another night.  There work is not just about exposing human rights abuses. It is about doing something about it. 

As we mark this  important anniversary, lets celebrate the courage of activists, supporters, staff, volunteers, and communities across the world who continue to defend dignity, freedom, equality, and justice. 

Amnesty’s central argument has always been brutally simple:  Human rights are not optional.  They belong to everyone. At a time when protest rights, refugee rights and civil liberties are still being fought over, Amnesty’s original message  is more relevant than ever. We shold  not back down until every single person enjoys their full rights.Here’s to many more years of people power and human rights impact. 

 Amnesty International History Video

Red Line for Palestine - Aberteifi/Gaza

 

Local  activists and residents are preparing to bring a 500-metre-long “Red Line” banner to the streets of Cardigan and Aberporth this weekend  in a public show of solidarity with the people of Palestine. 

Red Line for Gaza is a movement bringing together voices from across the UK to demand an end to the killing and suffering in Gaza. It is a tangible, peaceful symbol of opposition to all the Red Lines that Israel has crossed, and of the Westminster Government’s complicity in war crimes and the genocide being committed against the Palestinian people, for example, in continuing to arm Israel. 

On May 23rd, Palestine Solidarity Movement’s Red Line is to be unfurled through the streets of Cardigan. It will be the very same fabric Red Line that encircled the Houses of Parliament in London, the Senedd in Cardiff and the streets of Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. 

The Organisers of Cardigan Red Line said: “We invite everyone to join us and help carry the Red Line to bring attention back to what is happening in Gaza, to stand with the people of Palestine to send a clear message to our government.”

 “While the government continues to find loopholes to allow arms to be sold to Israel, and while they pass laws to restrict our right simply to protest we are carrying the Red Line to visibly mark the line where humanity refuses to stay silent. Join us!”

Campaigners highlighted ongoing violence and deteriorating living conditions in Gaza, citing reports that hundreds have been killed and thousands injured during the past six months despite ceasefire efforts. They also pointed to severe restrictions on humanitarian aid and the continued expansion of Israeli-controlled areas.  

According to organisers, worsening conditions have left many Palestinians displaced into increasingly overcrowded spaces, while shortages of food, sanitation and shelter continue to deepen the crisis. They also warned of growing health risks, including a rise in rat infestations affecting children living in temporary shelters.   

Day after day we have watched atrocities in Palestine unfold on our screens, as the Israeli government crosses red line after red line with impunity. We must stand together in solidarity and fight for a fair and just future for Palestine.  

Civilians in Gaza continue to face the horrors of a genocide – indiscriminate attacks on homes, schools, hospitals, and refugee camps continue. Life-saving aid is still being blocked. 

Palestinians in the West Bank face violent displacement, systematic discrimination, and the destruction of their economy.  Palestinians continue to exist under the injustice of brutal and unlawful occupation at the hands of the Israeli government, as they have done for decades. we watch as children die indiscriminately in Gaza. They are relentlessly bombed, shelled and shot at — and now they are starving. It’s beyond heartbreaking. Every child killed is a red line crossed.

Israel has crossed every red line with its relentless bombing of Gaza, killing tens of thousands of civilians including women and children, destroying hospitals, schools and entire neighbourhoods. Food, water, and aid weaponised. Gaza reduced to rubble.   

The latest UN humanitarian update on conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, released on 15 May,https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/opt-humanitarian-situation-report-15-may-2026 reports that most people in Gaza are displaced and exposed to health and environmental risks, while residential areas remain under attack. Last Wednesday, hundreds of families were forcibly displaced from areas in eastern Deir al Balah to other parts of Gaza. Palestinian militia forces reportedly went to people’s shelters and ordered them out. Displaced families say they also received phone calls from people who identified themselves as Israeli forces, instructing them to leave within a short period of time.  

Palestinian militia forces reportedly went to people’s shelters and ordered them out. Displaced families say they also received phone calls from people who identified themselves as Israeli forces, instructing them to leave within a short period of time.  

The update coincided with the UN commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were uprooted from their homes.   

Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, said that the situation in Gaza today is a catastrophe of grave proportions. The senior UN official said that, since the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023, devastation from the subsequent war has been staggering, with more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s population displaced, many repeatedly so.  

Over 43,000 people in Gaza have sustained life‑changing injuries, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, while rehabilitation services remain overstretched.  Spike in settler violence Civilian suffering is not confined to Gaza: the Jordan Valley has witnessed a spike in settler violence, with the monthly average of incidents causing casualties or property damage increasing 14-fold since 2020.  In the West Bank, 45 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished between 5 and 11 May. 90 per cent of the buildings were used for agricultural, livelihood, water or sanitation purposes.  

Mr. Khiari said that in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the UN continues to document systematic displacement of Palestinians, home demolitions, settlement expansion and the proliferation of outposts, adding that more than 40,000 Palestine refugees have been forcibly displaced from camps in the northern West Bank since early 2025.   

What we’re witnessing is the systematic destruction of a people’s ability to live, to hope, to exist.  The collective punishment, blockade and expansion of settlements, plus the violence in Lebanon and the West Bank, show a blatant disregard for international law and human rights.

Despite  this the  people in Gaza, hold on through immense hardship and sacrifice. They pray that their struggle is seen, and that relief and support reach  them  soon.

Don't forget your brothers and sisters in Gaza For three years now, they have endured unending oppression, deprivation that gnaws at the very fabric of their lives, and a existence burdened by hunger, fear, and exhaustion.  

For three years, their children have grown up amidst the sounds of pain instead of safety, Their mothers hide their tears so as not to break their young hearts, And their fathers stand helpless before endless needs.  

There are those who wait for a morsel of food, Those who wait for medicine, Those who wait for a tent to protect them from the cold of night and the heat of day. 

And there are the elderly, burdened by illness and infirmity., And pregnant women facing fear, hunger, and pain in the most dire circumstances, And students trying to cling to their dreams amidst destruction and deprivation.  

There are those who simply long to feel that they have not been forgotten.  Be a support to them… for Gaza is still calling upon the people of humanity and compassion.Sadly, the bombing and destruction never stops in Gaza — day and night. Families are forced to flee again and again, carrying fear and pain everywhere they go. 

They  are not asking for much  please do not leave Gaza alone. Raise your voices for them speak about Gaza,and defend the right of innocent children to live in safety and peace.  Now is the moment to act, We must speak out. The UK government remains complicit in what  is happening.  But international law should not be optional. It is a red line that should never be crossed.The Red Line banner is intended to symbolise “the line where humanity refuses to stay silent”. 

Every action, every voice adds to a movement that cannot be ignored. This is not just about politics. It’s about humanity. It’s about solidarity. It’s about refusing to stay silent .We must stand together in solidarity and fight for a fair and just future for Palestine.  

The Red Line march in Cardigan will take place on Saturday May 23. Participants are asked to gather at Cambrian Quay, SA43 1EZ, at 1pm and are also  being encouraged to wear red and join in carrying the banner through the towns as a symbolic demand for justice for Gaza.  

The demonstration will continue in Aberporth on Sunday May 24, beginning at 11am outside Qinetiq/MOD Aberporth, SA43 2BU. Be  there, stand  on the  side  of  humanity.  Free Palestine.

A screening of the  powerful film From Gaza We Speak will also be held at the Small World Theatre on Saturday evening. Doors open at 5.30pm, with the film beginning at 6pm. 

For online details of the Cardigan Red Line event see: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/1GtAPiJsbk/

RIP Pete Bingham - Sea of Tranquility

 

A poetical  tribute to Pete Bingham, West  Wales Sendelica, Kald  helmsman and friend

Sea  of  Tranquility 

You sail now upon a lunar sea

passing cracks in horizons, 

with submerged dreams 

plunging  the depths of oceans. 

Taking many directions

Finding your way back home.

Roaring through time and space 

To join a rainbow congregation .

May your new playground be joyful

Be a place of happiness and peace 

Meet other stars shining bright

Blow your shaman breath to earth.

We will continue to dance 

Your music will lift and inspire 

Magic atoms of your heart

Pulsating Psychedelic reverberations. 

Cosmic riffage vibrating

Far away  but enchanting

Elemental flames of  power

Carrying trancendental alchemy.

Rest  in Peace Pete. 

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Known as IDAHOBIT for short, this date was chosen as it commemorates the date of the decision to remove homosexuality from classification as a mental illness by the World Health Organisation in 1990. 

This milestone prompted various LGBTQ+ activists to advocate for a day dedicated to raising awareness about the discrimination faced by LGBTQ+ individuals worldwide. 

Finally, in 2004, IDAHOTB was officially established and it was first celebrated in 2005 after a year-long campaign around the concept. 24,000 individuals as well as organisations such as the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) signed an appeal to support the ‘IDAHO initiative’. 

In the UK, the campaign was coordinated by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA). Since its launch in 2004, it has grown into a globally recognised day of solidarity and activism. 

The significance of IDAHOTB lies in its mission to promote tolerance, acceptance, and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community, while also highlighting the ongoing challenges they face in terms of discrimination, violence, and inequality. 

Every year, thousands of initiatives are documented across the world. IDAHOBIT is currently marked in 155 countries and territories, including 35 where consensual same-sex acts are still criminalised. The day has received official recognition from several States, international institutions including the European Parliament, and countless local authorities. Most United Nations agencies also mark the day with specific events.

72 countries have laws that criminalise same-sex relationships. Out of these countries, 11 of them use the death penalty and 9 have sentences of life imprisonment.These statistics alone show why campaigns such as International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) are needed. Because one person being imprisoned because of their sexuality or gender is one too many.

Though unfortunately, despite some landmark changes occurring since then, Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia is still a rampant global issue and, although some countries may seem like the idyllic safe haven for LGBT+ people, beneath the surface there are still frequent examples of discrimination, repression and violence towards the LGBT+ community within these countries. 

LGBTQI+ workers frequently experience violence, bullying and harassment, discrimination and exclusion because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.As the authoritarian extreme right continue to gain traction in many countries; racism, xenophobia and discrimination targeting LGBTQI+ people, women, migrants and racialised people is on the rise.

 IDAHOBIT, observed on May 17th, is key in this global cause as the main purpose for its creation was to raise awareness of violence, discrimination, and repression of LGBT communities worldwide. 

The hopes were that this would then provide an opportunity to take action and engage in dialogue with the media, policymakers, public opinion, and wider civil society. 

The day serves as a reminder of the need for continued efforts to combat homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia in all forms, whether it’s institutionalized discrimination, societal prejudices, or individual acts of hate. .

Research by Stonewall, the national LGBT charity found that one in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime because of their sexual orientation in the past year and over half of trans people have been subjected to a hate crime due to their gender identity.  

Around a quarter of LGBT people avoid some streets due to safety concerns and 13 per cent have been discriminated against in a bar, restaurant or club venue.Trans people in particular still experience appalling levels of abuse on social media and are on the receiving end of misinformation and direct attacks from TV and print media.

We may have legal protections, rights and defence against discrimination, but these progressions only do so much, can only change public perception and action so far. Plus, the delay in banning Conversion Therapy and the lack of progression in Trans rights has really hindered any further progress. 

As the authoritarian extreme right continue to gain traction in many countries; racism, xenophobia and discrimination targeting LGBTQI+ people, women, migrants and racialised people is on the rise.

Queer and trans people are facing a frightening rise in hate and violence, fuelled by those who punch down on marginalized communities to divide and distract us. We must  always speak out clearly and unapologetically against this hate.Today, I honour the activists and community members who continue that work every single day. 

More needs to be done, within the UK, across Europe, and globally, and that work will not stop until no person is persecuted or discriminated against because of their sexuality or gender identity.

This year’s theme, ‘At the Heart of Democracy’, reminds us that a democracy which excludes LGBTIQ+ people from participation is incomplete and  that  a true  deomocracy must  be grounded  in  justice  and  democracy for  everyone.  .

Raising awareness of IDAHOTB is crucial in fostering a more inclusive and accepting society. International Day Against Homophoia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHBOIT) is an opportunity to drive positive change and to remember that there is still a way to go until all LGBTQ+ people are free and safe from harm. Everyone deserves to live safely, openly, and fully as themselves.

I will always side with anyone who has been “othered” whether that is down to gender, sexuality, skin colour, faith, age or disability. Today I want to share that I still believe in hope, in love and in humanity! 

Marking the 78th Anniversary of the Nabka

 

On May 15th each year, Palestinians and their allies around the world mark the Nakba ( Cataclysm)  the time when more than 750,000 Palestiians, about half of the Arab population  in Palestine at that time, were forced out of their homes and lands and saw  Palestinian villages wiped off the map to establish the state of Israel in 1948. 

Every year, Palestinians mark the anniversary with marches, exhibitions and public events in the Palestinian territories and around the world to assert their rights, foremost the right of return for millions of refugees. 

This year’s events were held under the slogan “We will not leave. Our roots are deeper than your destruction,” with marches, rallies and public gatherings in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, refugee camps and diaspora communities.  

In Ramallah, Palestinians held a central march and public rally with broad official and popular participation, raising Palestinian flags, black banners and symbolic keys of return.  

Similar events were held in Palestinian refugee camps in Arab and foreign countries, where participants carried signs bearing the names of Palestinian villages and cities depopulated in 1948, reaffirming the right of return and rejecting displacement.  

The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines  and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from  their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law. It  is the defining event that formed and solidified the Palestinian liberation struggle. 

The 1948 founding of Israel was founded with the Nakba, a series of atrocities that ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland.Israel was established by means of brutal massacres  (Deir Yassin, Kafr Qasim, Tantura, etc.), through ethnic cleansing, and an attempt to erase Palestinians both from their land and global collective memory.. Palestinians were forced out of their homes and lands and saw Palestinian villages wiped off the map in places like Yassin, Lydda and Tantura  by the hands of Zionist para-military groups like Ergun,  the Stern Gang  and Haganah, that later formed the core of the Israeli Defense Force.

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Palestine Mandate, the British colonial power began implementing its plan of creating a Jewish state on Palestinian land. At the same time, the Zionist movement was lobbying Western powers to support the mass migration of Jews to Palestine and recognize a Jewish claim to the land.  In 1917, the Balfour Declaration declared British support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and that's how the Day of Nakba officially began. 

The  notorious declaration was made in a letter written by Britain's then-Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, to Baron Rothschild, a leader of the British Zionist movement. The letter was endorsed by Britain's then-Prime Minister David Lloyd George..The letter stated the British would "use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object". For Zionists, this was a clear victory.

The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines  and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from their right to return to their homes or the reclaiming of their property, and in doing so Israel violated international law. It is the defining event that formed and solidified the Palestinian liberation struggle.

To understand the Nakba is to first confront its sheer scale and totality. Before the Nakba there was a large, deeply rooted, and essentially ancient Arab society in most of what, within a few months, became the Jewish state of Israel. In effect, one day it was there, as it had been for living memory, and the next day it was gone. An entire society, with the exception of relatively small groups in a few places, simply vanished.

After World War I, the League of Nations broke the Ottoman Empire up into territories assigned to different colonial powers. The lands that today constitute Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories were placed under British rule, but with two explicit and incompatible purposes: Britain was already committed to supporting the recently established Zionist movement that sought to create “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. 

Then in Britain came the notorious 1917 Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate, in which the overwhelming Palestinian majority was simply referred to as “existing non-Jewish communities,” with “civil and religious rights,” but not political ones.

With the Balfour Declaration, the government of the time was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews, which was becoming an emerging political force. In 1917, Jews constituted 10% of the population, the rest were  Arabs. Yet Britain recognised the national rights of a tiny minority and denied it to the majority This was a classic colonial document which totally disregarded the rights and aspirations of the indigenous population. In the words of Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”

It was a shock to the Arab world, which had not been consulted and had received promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of the defeated Ottoman Empire. The Palestinians have always condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise" saying Britain was giving away land it did not own.

The Balfour Declaration constituted a  dangerous historical precedent and a blatant breach of all international laws and norms, and this  act of the British Empire to “give” the land of another people  for colonial settlement created the conditions for countless atrocities against the Palestinian people. Balfour, in a 1919 confidential memo, wrote: 

 “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”  

The discriminatory language used by Sir Arthur Balfour and seen in the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate reveal the prejudiced rational behind British foreign policy in Palestine. A month after the Balfour Declaration on 2 December 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem. In 1923, the British Mandate for Palestine came into effect, and included the entire text of the Balfour Declaration. Through the Mandate, Britain would go on to rule Palestine for three decades.

As a result of all of this the Palestinian people were denied the right to independence and statehood, and were treated as refugees in their own land. The Nakba resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society and much of the Arab landscape was obliterated by the Zionist state. And in the post 1948 period the Palestinians became second class citizens, subject  to a system of military occupation by a government that confiscated the bulk of their lands.

Even the word 'Nakba' was banned by the Israeli Minister of Education in 2009, and was removed from school textbooks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayah said at the time that the word was tantamount to spreading propoganda against Israel. But the word Nakba is the term that about a fifth of Israel's population, the Palestinians use to describe this day.

The influx of Zionists to Palestine, supported by the British, was however was met with fierce Palestinian resistance and is very important to note that the Palestinian leadership in Al-Quds at the time insisted on continuing negotiations with the British to resolve the simmering tensions, Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam, a Syrian leader living in Haifa since 1922, began calling for resistance against the British and the Zionists.  In 1935, Al-Qassam was surrounded by British forces and killed along with some of his men. His resistance inspired many Palestinians.

By 1936, an Arab resistance erupted against British imperialism and Zionist settler colonialism and by  1939, the Palestinians found themselves fighting two enemies: British colonial forces and Zionist militia groups.

And although the British had backed mass Jewish immigration to Palestine, the colonial power began to limit the number of Jews arriving in the country in an attempt to quell Arab unrest.This new limit on immigration upset the Zionists and they launched a series of terrorist attacks on British authorities to drive them out, while at the same time the Zionists continued to further advance their dream of creating a Jewish state on Palestinian land. 

After the war, Israel refused to allow them the right to return because it says it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

The Zionist strategy of expelling Palestinians from their land was a slow and deliberate process. According to Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Zionist leaders and military commanders met regularly from March 1947 to March 1948, when they finalized plans to ethnically cleanse Palestine.  As Zionist attacks on the British and Arabs escalated, the British decided to hand over their responsibility for Palestine to the newly founded United Nations.

In November 1947, the UN General Assembly proposed a plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab one. Jews in Palestine only constituted one-third of the population - most of whom had arrived from Europe a few years earlier - and only retained control of less than 5.5 percent of historic Palestine. Yet under the UN proposal, they were allocated 55 percent of the land. The Palestinians and their Arab allies rejected the proposal. The Zionist message was simple: Leave the land or be killed. The Zionist movement accepted all this on the grounds that it legitimized the idea of a Jewish state on Arab land. But they did not agree to the proposed borders and campaigned to conquer even more of historic Palestine. 

As the date (May 14, 1948) selected by the British for their Palestine Mandate to expire approached, Zionist forces hastened their efforts to seize Palestinian land. In April 1948, the Zionists captured Haifa, one of the biggest Palestinian cities, and subsequently set their eyes on Jaffa. On the same day, British forces formally withdrew, and David Ben-Gurion, then-head of the Zionist Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel.  Overnight, the Palestinians became stateless. The world’s two great powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, immediately recognized Israel. 

As the Zionists continued their ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians, war broke out between neighboring Arab countries and the new Zionist state. The UN appointed Swedish diplomat, Folke Bernadotte, as its mediator in Palestine. He recognized the plight of the Palestinians and attempted to address their suffering. His efforts to bring about a peaceful solution and halt to the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign ended when he was assassinated by the Zionists in September 1948. 

Nevertheless the  UN continued to push for an armistice deal between Israel and those Arab countries.  Bernadotte was replaced by his American deputy, Ralph Bunche. Negotiations led by Bunche between Israel and the Arab states resulted in the latter conceding even more Palestinian land to the newly founded Zionist state. In May 1949, Israel was admitted to the UN, and its grip over 78 percent of historic Palestine was consolidated. The remaining 22 percent became known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

While the Nakba represented a catastrophic historic event in the collective consciousness of the Palestinian people, it was followed only 19 years later by another horrific war which resulted in the displacement of a quarter to one third of the Palestinian population and the beginning of a new era in which the whole of it got to live under a complex Israeli regime. 

This additional event got to be known as “the Naksa”, which can be translated as a serious quick escalation of an earlier catastrophe. The Naksa happened in and after a war that took only six days between Israel on the one hand, and a number of Arab countries surrounding, resulting in a relatively easy victory of Israel and the occupation of territories that were under the sovereignty or administration of its neighbouring states. 

Although the hostilities of the war itself were quick and not that widespread, the displaced persons from the occupied Palestinian Territory were hundreds of thousands. In other words, the number of Palestinians displaced in that war was out of proportion. This can be understood only by explaining the ideological background that has, since the Nakba, been informing military, legislative and administrative Israeli operations. 

When the war took place in 1967, Zionist leaders saw this as an opportunity to make some demographic changes in the occupied territory as a whole and in certain areas in particular. During and immediately after the war, some quarter a million to 420,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes.in  a  continiation of  Israels policy  of  etnic  cleansing  that  started with the Nabka, 

The Nabka is given almost no attention in  history books or by the mainstream news media but is essential in understanding the ongoing violence in Israel-Palestine and the Middle East in general.  Events like  this  are at the core of the Palestinan peoples  national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza. 

The Nakba, is ongoing to this day, as millions of Palestinians continue to be starved in Gaza, while thousands more are massacred and displaced from Gaza to the West Bank in  Israel's ongoing genocide.

Over the past 78 years, the Palestinian people have continued to be oppressed and dispossessed, with  over 7 million Palestinians living  as refugees or exiles, who  are still denied the right to return to the land from which they, or their family, were forcibly expelled. A right which is enshrined in international law. 

The Nakba  continues every day as Palestinians are evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to be replaced by illegal Jewish-only settlements. It continues as Israel’s occupation obstructs and severely restricts Palestinians’ attainment of rights and fundamental freedoms, including: the right to life, the right to liberty and security of person, and their right to an adequate standard of living.

The crimes that were committed in 1948 draw haunting parallels to the action that Israeli forces have been committing in Palestine in since October 7, 2023. Today we are witnessing Israel engage in ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza on an even larger, more violent scale. The Palestinians are facing what Israeli leaders openly call the “Gaza Nakba”an unprecedented genocide of extermination and forced displacement against Palestinians in Gaza.   

In the aftermath of October 7th, a second Nakba has been unfolding in Gaza  before  our  eyes, with over 35,000 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.That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war. 

The fact that members of the Israeli government are calling their assault Gaza 'the new Nabka' tells you all you need to know about their intended endgame. It's genocide.Nakba is not history. Nakba is the  present. Forcibly starving and annihilating 2 millions Palestinian  people is Nakba.. It’s a wound that bleeds every day.

Many of the families whose grandparents were displaced in 1948 remain displaced today, living in tents in Gaza and in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank also continue to experience the destruction of their homes, schools and sources of livelihoods.  

More than 2 million people remain displaced within Gaza, many of them multiple times over; and over 1.2 million people - almost 60 percent of the Gaza Strip population - have lost their homes.   Israel’s genocide has caused catastrophic damage to Gaza’s education system, leaving an estimated 728,000 children and youth without formal schooling for more than two years and resulting in the deaths of thousands of students and hundreds of educators.    

In the occupied West Bank, schools, which should be places of safety and stability, are sites of fear. There have been 99 documented education-related incidents in 2026 alone, including the killing, injury and detention of students, the demolition of schools, the military use of school buildings, and denial of access. 

In the first four months of this year, more than 2,500 Palestinians - including 1,100 children - have been displaced in the occupied West Bank, exceeding the total recorded in all of 2025. March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler attacks in the past 20 years. Almost 350 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention - the highest number in eight years.  

The 78th anniversary of the Nakba carries particular urgency. Six months on, the ceasefire has failed to end the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with ongoing airstrikes and severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid. As a result, humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate at an alarming pace. Meanwhile, violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has reached record levels.  

The Nakba was never a single moment,it is a system that still displaces, erases, and confines the Palestninian people. Every demolished home, every village cut off by walls, every child growing up under siege is part of that ongoing catastrophe.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Palestinians worldwide reached about 15.49 million by the end of 2025, more than half of them living outside historic Palestine, including 6.82 million in Arab countries.  

The population of the State of Palestine stands at about 5.56 million, including 3.43 million in the West Bank and 2.13 million in the Gaza Strip, according to the bureau.  

The bureau said Gaza has seen a sharp and unprecedented population decline of about 254,000 people since Israel’s war began in October 2023, citing killings, displacement and worsening living conditions.  This year’s anniversary comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues and military operations escalate in the West Bank, amid Palestinian warnings of renewed displacement attempts targeting Palestinians.  

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded over 172,000 others, while causing massive destruction to homes, infrastructure, and vital facilities, in addition to a severe humanitarian crisis driven by siege conditions and shortages of food, water, and medicine.  

The logic remains unchanged: sovereignty denied, displacement renewed, and the Nakba carried forward.  Mass starvation as policy,, the  catastrophe of the Nakba  and its consequences continue to this day. Too many generations have been born into displacement, kept from their land by institutions of apartheid, ideologies of annihilation, military backing from Western powers, corporate complicity, and media distortion.  But none of this has quashed the resistance of Palestinians or the resolve of people of conscience who support them.

From campuses to city councils, from the streets to the largest trade unions, a global wave of solidarity is rising. Millions of justice activists, artists, workers, students, farmers, and human rights defenders are standing up for Palestinian liberation worldwide. The Palestinian-led BDS movement is reshaping how the world relates to Israel: not as a normal state, but as a regime of genocide and apartheid that must be dismantled to achieve freedom, justice and equality.

Today let’s send a strong message of solidarity to Palestine and the Palestinian people suffering! We cannot be silent in the face of an ongoing genocide, or the constant violation of Palestinian human rights and international law. 

The UK Government has repeatedly ignored its legal obligation to prevent and punish genocide, hypocritically claiming to be a champion of the ‘rule of law’ whilst enabling Israel to enforce its apartheid regime and systemically deny the humanity of all Palestinians. It’s beyond disappointing, it's disgusting. 

Today, as we observe  the sad sombre event of the Nakba and it's ongoing resonance, lets be stronger and more determined  than ever to stand up to Israeli policies of apartheid. It is more important than ever that the  international community keep defending Palestinian human rights, support Palestinian protests against forced housing demolitions and land theft and put real pressure on Israel to end its occupation and comply with international law. 

The Palestinians are not going to give up and be content to mourn the ghost of Palestine. Today we remember this. The Palestinian people still belong to their land, where they still remain, in their hearts and spirits, still holding and caring for the keys of their houses for the people who left. Time drifts, but for many memory is never erased, still belonging to the land of their ancestors, where hearts and minds can never leave.  It is time for the leaders of the world to understand that there is no homeland for the Palestinians except Palestine.

Every day of impunity granted to apartheid Israel brings further devastating consequences to Indigenous Palestinians and to what’s left of international law’s credibility. More than 78years later, today we're witnessing a second Nabka, millions of descendants are still denied the right to return.T

he same ideology that informed the ethnic cleansing of 1948 is the same ideology that informs the genocide of Gaza. Palestinians still have no state and no equality, Refugee camps still exist all over the world and a majority of Palestinians live in the diaspora. Palestine is occupied  in the most brutal way possible.

For the nearly six million Palestinians who live between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the nakba remains an ongoing process, against their will, the Nakba has divided the Palestinian people between Gaza and the West Bank. Still searching for justice and dignty, rememberance acts as resistance to their occupiers who still try to bury and hide their history. 

The Nakba still reverberates today because  Al Nakba is constant and continuing, felt through all aspects of Palestininian life, whether in Israel. the Occupied Territores, the refugees camps, or even in settled Palestinian communities abroad. Scholars agree that the Nakba has never ended. It is an ongoing reality for Palestinians throughout historic Palestine and across the diaspora.

In just one year, Israel expelled over 36,000 Palestinians from their West Bank homes, and displaced

over 2 million amid its genocide in the Gaza Strip. What we are witnessing in Gaza is not an event separate from the Nakba. It is the continuation of it.  

This ongoing catastrophe is present everywhere Palestinians exist under Israeli control, violence, and influence. We see it in Masafer Yatta and across the West Bank, where armed Israeli settlers, backed by Israeli soldiers, attack Palestinian communities and force families from their land. 

The current rendition of the ongoing Nakba is manifested in the Israeli Decisive Plan. It aims to eliminate Palestinian self-determination and return through the imposition of Israeli domination, spatial apartheid, and forced displacement. 

In the West Bank, Palestinians are displaced, and their communities isolated by the closure apparatus, colonizers’ attacks, land confiscation, and suppression of all forms of resistance. Israeli spatial apartheid policies have been magnified in order to further fragment Palestinians and their land into macro and micro enclaves. 

Since 2023, more than 5,800 Palestinians have been displaced, and 45 communities have been completely depopulated in the West Bank and Jerusalem as a result of Israeli raids, colonizer attacks, and home demolitions. In addition, over 33,000 Palestinian refugees remain displaced from the emptied and enclaved refugee camps of Tulkarm, Nur Shams and Jenin since January 2025, resulting from the “Iron Wall operation.” 

The Israeli closure apparatus is marked by over 925 movement obstacles, including at least 384 iron gates, the expansion of colonizer-only bypass roads and plans to construct 34 new colonies in 2026 across the West Bank and Jerusalem.  

In Jerusalem and 1948 Palestine, the Israeli regime has accelerated its suppression of Palestinians, with surges in home demolitions, mass arrests, enclaving through discriminatory zoning and planning, and surveillance disguised as “security.” 

 In the Gaza Strip, nearly all 2.1 million Palestinians have been internally displaced at least six or seven times, and lack adequate shelters, healthcare and education. The ongoing Israeli blockade and restrictions on aid have depleted food, water, medicine and other essential items; inducing further malnutrition that will destroy an entire generation. 

Since the fake ceasefire, the Israeli regime has killed 854 Palestinians. As it continues to deliberately engineer malnutrition and a coercive environment, Palestinians are left with only three choices, as dictated in the Decisive Plan: surrender, flee or be killed. 

Furthermore, the imposition of the “yellow line” has imposed an enclave within an enclave, isolating Palestinians to approximately 42% of the Gaza Strip. Under the pressure and influence of the Trump administration, UN Security Council Resolution 2803 incorporated Trump’s 20-point plan, contrary to international law and ultimately legitimizing the Israeli regime’s colonial aims, through the creation of the “Board of Peace” (BoP). 

The BoP – which inexplicably includes the Israeli regime itself – supposedly coordinates billion-dollar “reconstruction” pledges from third states. Not only has the BoP usurped the role of the UN and international organizations, it has yet to provide adequate aid to the Gaza Strip; and, since the war with Iran began, aid to the Gaza Strip has dropped 80 percent. 

Designed to absolve the Israeli regime from criticism, the BoP simultaneously prevents the UN and other states from intervening, and displaces legal and financial responsibility for the genocide while reframing reparations as donor-driven reconstruction. In doing so, the BoP consolidates control in external actors, sidelines Palestinians, and erodes their rights to self-determination and reparations. Resolution 2803 and Trump’s 20-point plan deny meaningful authority over governance, land, and resources while reproducing Israeli colonial domination under the guise of “reconstruction.”  

Since the enforcement of its banning laws in January 2025, the Israeli regime has denied visas and permits to UNRWA, and demolished the Agency’s Jerusalem headquarters in January 2026. The Israeli regime continues to obstruct its aid and services, particularly in the Gaza Strip where UNRWA operations would save lives. Instead, there have been severe reductions in healthcare, education, and emergency services resulting from the failure of states’ to provide the Agency with the financial and political support it is due. 

Former Commissioner-General Lazzarini warned: “In the absence of a significant influx of new funding, the delivery of critical services to millions of Palestine Refugees across the region will be compromised.” 

By defunding and diverting their funding to other organizations, states are not only complicit in genocide but also failing to uphold Palestinian refugee rights and ensure their protection. By allowing the Israeli regime to continue its ban of a UN agency, states enable it to weaponize aid for its colonial and genocidal agenda.      

Beyond the provision of aid and services, which are essential components of international protection, UNRWA has a crucial role in upholding the Palestinian right of return. The Agency is mandated to operate until the implementation of Article 11 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194: the right to reparations (including return, property restitution, compensation and non-repetition). 

Fundamentally and politically, the elimination of UNRWA is part of a broader Israeli campaign to eliminate the Palestinian right of return. States’ withdrawal of political and financial support to UNRWA further entrenches their complicity and violates their obligation to provide protection. 

States are not only obligated to support UNRWA, but they must also reject any frameworks that endorse its elimination, such as Trump’s 20-point plan, the BoP and the Israeli laws banning UNRWA. 

This includes the UN’s Strategic Assessment of UNRWA, which provides scenarios for its collapse. Importantly, states’ endorsement of colonial approaches and mechanisms serve to normalize Israeli crimes, and their entrenchment across historic Palestine and the region.  

The application of the Israeli regime’s genocidal playbook to Lebanon is another example of this normalization and entrenchment. Allowing Israeli violations of another fake ceasefire has resulted in the displacement of over 1 million people under the guise of evacuation, the targeting of UN personnel and premises as well as humanitarians and journalists, and the destruction of entire villages and public and service infrastructure to prevent return and secure Israeli colonial expansion.  

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, including those that were forcibly displaced from Syria, have been displaced yet again. In line with the Decisive Plan, Israeli colonial expansion is to be extended beyond Palestine, into Lebanon but Syria, Jordan and Egypt in order to establish “Greater Israel.”   

 Support for the Israeli regime is also reflected in states’ policies at home: repressing, silencing, and criminalizing any and all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. With the EU once again maintaining its economic agreement with the Israeli regime, and entrenching its complicity, it is more vital than ever that the solidarity movement escalate its direct actions to disrupt the status quo and impose material cost. 

Only through sustained and concerted pressure on states to end their complicity and impose military, political and economic sanctions on the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime will its crimes come to an end.  

Israel has never been held to account for the Nakba 78 years ago and isn’t being held to account for its apartheid today. On the 78th Anniversary of the Nakba we musr reaffirm the  eternal truth Palestine was, and remains, the land of one people, the Palestinian people, despite their pain, displacement,and decades and decades of struggle.

We  must  call on the Government of Israel to respect the ceasefire, ensure the protection of civilians, and urgently allow unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

We must urge the UK Government to take all meaningful legal, diplomatic and economic action to hold perpetrators accountable and bring an end to Israel’s systematic violations of international law, atrocities against Palestinians, and illegal occupation.  

Accountability for ongoing Israeli crimes and states’ complicity begins with sanctions to dismantle the structures of Israeli domination and oppression. Imposing a comprehensive rights-based decolonization framework, that centers the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and return, is the only solution to the ongoing Nakba.

 Nakba day is both a day of commemoration for atrocities committed and a commitment to justice for Palestinians. It is a stark reminder of the longstanding and ongoing nature of Israel’s settler colonial project, and of Palestinian sumud, steadfastness, in the face of it. It is a rallying cry for all of us who stand in solidarity with Palestinians and others in the region to do everything in our power to bring this catastrophe to an end. Today is a day for justice and liberation.for  us  to  reimagine  a future where Palestinans  live  in  peace and dignity. From the rivers to  the  sea, Free Palestine!