A Joint Nakba Remembrance Day Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 15, at the Oak Bluffs library. Doors open at 12:30 p.m., and the program begins at 12:45. The ceremony is sponsored by Combatants for Peace (CfP), a joint Palestinian-Israeli community working in solidarity to end the occupation, discrimination, and oppression. Co-hosting the event are Olive Branch Fair Trade and Expanding the Conversation, a group of Vineyarders committed to raising awareness of on-the-ground realities in Israel-Palestine and bringing about a lasting peace. The public is invited to attend.

The ceremony itself, which is livestreamed from Jerusalem, will begin at 1 p.m. This year’s theme is “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? The program will also include readings by local participants.

The Joint Nakba Remembrance Ceremony commemorates 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. Combatants for Peace has led this unique event since 2019, believing that peace and reconciliation involve a sincere and honest reckoning with this history. Guided by the values of nonviolent resistance, CfP is the only organization, worldwide, in which fighters on both sides of an active conflict have laid down their weapons, choosing to work together for a just peace.