The personal accounts of Palestine's most painful point in history, which Palestinians have been recounting for 65 years, have been confirmed time and again by UN reports, resolutions, historians and military archives. The Nakba, our catastrophe and dispossession in 1948, cannot be denied. In order to achieve peace, it is time for Israel to recognize its responsibility for this crime, as a first step towards accountability and a just solution to this conflict.
Historically, Palestinian refugees, wherever they have sought temporary sanctuary following the ethnic cleansing of their country by the 19th century Zionist colonial enterprise, and pending their return to Palestine, have insisted on avoiding local and international conflicts while seeking a modicum of interim civil rights from the host countries.

1. Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe. It is used to describe the Palestinian loss of land and property during the depopulation of Palestine from 1947-1949 and does not refer simply to the declaration of a state of Israel.
