As May 15 marks Nakba Day, which commemorates the 1948 expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in historical Palestine to make way for the new state of Israel, Palestine's ambassador to Turkey said that Palestinians will continue resisting Israeli occupation.
Faed Mustafa released a video message for the Palestinian citizens living in Turkey and the Turkish people on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of Nakba or Great Catastrophe.
Mustafa said that the Palestinians continue to fight for their cause in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah, Bayt al-Maqdis, Gaza, and other cities, as well as refugee camps where they were exiled.
The forced migration that followed Nakba was a great calamity and a genocide that has continued to date, he said, noting: "In 1948, more than 800,000 of 1.5 million Palestinian people living in Palestinian lands were forced to migrate."
Most of those people went to neighboring Arab countries, also to the West Bank and Gaza, he added.
Mustafa also recalled that 774 Palestinian villages and cities were occupied by Israel during the Nakba and 531 of them were completely destroyed.
"With this genocide, the Zionist gangs committed more than 70 massacres against the Palestinians," he said, adding that "more than 15,000 Palestinians were martyred."
"Despite all the obstacles, occupation policies, and the murders during the occupation, we are taking firm steps to gain our rights. We will eradicate this invasion in our blessed lands," Mustafa said.
"Depending on our national principles, our blessed march will not stop until Palestinian flags fly in the heart and walls of Jerusalem."
"These people, who were reborn from their ruins in 1948 and persevered and resisted with the will of their martyrs, have not changed in 2021 and will resist," Mustafa said.
"It is true that we paid great prices and shed blood and tears, but this is the tax paid by those whom Allah chose to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque."
Mustafa conveyed his endless gratitude to the Turkish presidency, government, people, parties, parliament, and non-governmental organizations for their unwavering stance in supporting the Palestinian people.
