Britain: MP drafts Nakba Commemoration Bill

A British MP, has drafted a bill calling on the government to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba (“Catastrophe”), news agencies reported on Tuesday. Layla Moran has a Palestinian background and is the Liberal Democrat Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson.

“My own family were forced to flee Jerusalem during the Nakba,” she told Jewish News. “Five and a half million Palestinian refugees worldwide now share a state of dispossession.”

Moran added that she takes it upon herself to carry Palestine in her heart and do whatever she can to safeguard its future. “That’s why I presented my Nakba Commemoration Bill earlier today, calling on the government to start a new chapter, commemorating this catastrophe and recognising the UK’s historic obligation to the region.”

The bill calls on the secretary of state “to encourage and facilitate annual commemoration of the Nakba.”

Meanwhile, the LibDem MP also tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) seeking MPs’ signatures in support of the bill, stating that, “Monday 15 May 2023 marks 75 years since 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from Palestine in what is now known as the Nakba. We call on the Government to immediately recognise an independent Palestinian state which will help breathe new life into the peace process; and urge the Government to continue to pursue a two-state solution and a lasting peace in the region.”

The EDM also “recalls the 800,000 Jews who fled or were expelled from Arab states from 1948 onwards.”

Nakba Day: 75 years since Palestine’s ‘catastrophe’ commemorated worldwide