UNRWA USA 46d ago

78 years ago, families locked the doors of homes they believed they would soon return to. A mother folded house keys into the corner of her dress. A father carried land deeds in his coat pocket. Children walked roads they did not understand would become exile. They left believing absence would be temporary. But the Nakba did not end in 1948. It continued in classrooms, where children learned the geography of homes they had never seen. It continued in Gaza, where families once again carry what they can through streets reduced to dust. It continued in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where displacement remains a daily fear. It continued in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, where Palestine refugees still live in exile, denied the right to return home. UNRWA continues to show up and remains on the ground. Through every generation of displacement, UNRWA schools still opened, clinics still treated the sick, and bread was still distributed. Children were still taught their histories and their dignity. And still, people remember. They remember the fig tree in the courtyard. They remember the sound of the sea in Jaffa. They remember the smell of coffee before dawn in Jerusalem. They remember because memory, for displaced people, becomes a second homeland. UNRWA will continue to serve Palestine refugees, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. On this Nakba commemoration day, UNRWA USA reaffirms its commitment to the inalienable dignity of Palestine refugees, while mobilizing support for the critical humanitarian services they need to survive. For the Nakba is not only the story of what was lost. It is also the story of what has refused to disappear.