<p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://thecrux.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><div class="youtube-wrap" id="youtube2-rGVgjS98OsU"><div class="youtube-inner"></div></div><div class="pullquote"><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not represent those of my employer, any affiliated organization, or any institution with which I am associated.</strong></em></p></div><p>Colonization is not a thing of the past. Imperialism is not a relic of times long ago. They are both happening right now in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. And today, May 15, we remember the Nakba. </p><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://thecrux.substack.com/p/the-nakba-is-still-in-progress?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share"><span>Share</span></a></p><p>The Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of modern-day Israel. About 750,000 Palestinians were forced to flee or were expelled from their homes, and many villages and towns were destroyed or depopulated. For Palestinians, it marks not only a historical event but also the start of a lasting refugee crisis and loss of homeland. The Nakba is commemorated each year on May 15, the day after Israel declared independence in 1948.</p><div class="youtube-wrap" id="youtube2-fhUqbNd7Zag"><div class="youtube-inner"></div></div><p>When I heard Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac speak last year at Riverside Church, he commissioned us to do two things. <strong>“Come and see” and “tell the truth”.</strong> </p><p>I pray that all of us are able to do both in our own ways. </p><p><strong>And while doing so we must not give into hatred and propaganda that would make us hateful toward anyone – including perpetrators of violent imperialism and racist violence. Lest we become the very thing that we are resisting.</strong> </p><p>“A land without a people for a people without a land” is a lie, detached from reality and revisionist history packaged and peddled to generations of people longing to redress the terrible violence of American and Western European governments towards Jewish people that precipitated the Holocaust.</p><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://thecrux.substack.com/subscribe?"><span>Subscribe now</span></a></p><p>This is the tension that we must hold in our hearts and not allow to be oversimplified into an <em>us vs. them</em> set of beliefs that could lead us down the path of dehumanization and violence enabled and encouraged by so many. We must live into this prayer from </p><p>Laura Jean Truman:</p><blockquote><p><em>God, Keep my anger from becoming meanness.<br /><br />Keep my sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.<br /><br />Keep my heart soft enough to keep breaking.<br /><br />Keep my anger turned towards justice, not cruelty.<br /><br />Remind me that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.<br /><br />Keep me fiercely kind.<br /><br />Amen.</em></p></blockquote><p>And we must live into this at scale.</p><p>It is true that violence wounds us and it is true that we can heal. Lord give us strength to mourn, hope, grieve and work for a more just and loving world. Remember the Nakba.</p><div><hr /></div><div class="digest-post-embed"></div><blockquote><p><em><strong>A NOTE ABOUT WRITING</strong>: With this change, paid subscribers become much more important. When Sy and I started KTF, our hope was to grow it to the point where it could become “what we do. And, I started the CRUX with the same hope. I love to write and the DREAM would be for this to be a full-time occupation. If you’d like to make that more possible, please become a paid subscriber. And, if you <a href="https://bit.ly/Support-CBR-ArochaUSA">DONATE to AROCHA USA // Center for Beauty and Resistance</a>, you will be made a founding member. Thanks for your prayers, support and generosity.</em></p></blockquote><div><hr /></div><p class="button-wrapper"><a class="button primary" href="https://thecrux.substack.com/p/the-nakba-is-still-in-progress/comments"><span>Leave a comment</span></a></p><p><strong>Let me know what you think! I look forward to the conversation and comments because our screens make us into lonely consumers but God made us to be a vibrant community.</strong></p><p>– jonathan</p>