California school to host 'Nakba 75' event on Jerusalem Day

An event headlined “Nakba 75” is scheduled to take place in the auditorium of the Public Santa Ana High School in Orange County, California on Thursday evening, May 18th. The stated goal of the event is to mark the 75th anniversary of the “Nakba” (Arabic for “catastrophe”), the term commonly used by Palestinians and anti-Israel groups to refer to the founding of Israel.  The event is sponsored by American organizations that support terrorist attacks against Israelis and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Notably, the event’s invitation refers to Israel as a “settler-colonial state.” The auditorium in which the event is taking place in the Santa Ana High School is available to rent for $151 an hour and can be rented through a platform called Facilitron.

Santa Ana High School hasn’t responded to The Jerusalem Post’s request for comment on whether the school supports this narrative and whether the school would host pro-Israel events as well.

"I am asking you to join me in demanding that the Santa Ana High School in Orange County, California cancel the 'Nakba 75' event on May 18 organized by Jew-haters and terrorist supporters," said youth movement Club Z director and founder Masha Merkulova in an email to the members of her movement. Merkulova asked for masses of students and adults to pressure the school by "calling and emailing Santa Ana High School administration," and included their email addresses, as well as the school phone number.

She added a proposed script for the emails: “We respectfully request that you cancel the 'Nakba 75' event taking place in your school on May 18 as it promotes hateful, antisemitic rhetoric and indoctrination. Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela has a history of sharing antisemitic tropes and militant anti-Israel rhetoric. I understand that your school is renting the space to this group, but I must ask: Would Santa Ana High School rent space to neo-Nazis? Thank you for your time.” 

Club Z is a national American Zionist youth movement that cultivates the next generation of proud, articulate and active Jewish leaders. 

According to its website, Santa Ana High School is part of the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), which serves the city of Santa Ana and parts of Irvine and Newport Beach. 

In April, SAUSD approved 2 ethnic studies courses that attracted significant controversy due to their anti-Israel bias – course materials included articles and books referring to Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “Jewish land grabbing” and “ethnic cleansing.”

The 'Nakba 75 Tour'

The event is part of a “Nakba 75 Tour” taking place in several US cities from May 15-20 featuring Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of former South African president Nelson Mandela and one of South Africa’s most outspoken anti-Zionists. The tour is organized by the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). Other sponsoring organizations include Black Lives Matter LA, the Palestinian American Women’s Association, the Arab American Civic Council and the Palestinian Youth Movement. One of the tour’s events, which was set to take place at the University of Minnesota on May 16, was canceled by the administration.  

Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela has a history of engaging in antisemitic tropes and militant anti-Israel rhetoric. For example, in a March 2022 speech, he blamed Israel for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, referring to “the apartheid Israel dogs of war” and saying that the “Zionist lobbying machine” has “wormed itself into our structures overtly and covertly.” In the same speech, he said that African countries should take steps to “isolate apartheid Israel for the evil apartheid pariah state that it is.” 

As mentioned, The tour sponsors are organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which has an extensive track record of expressing explicit support for terrorists and terror activities against Israel, frequently publishing posts in support of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists and referring to their casualties as “martyrs.”

In 2017, the group honored one of the leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who was killed by Israeli intelligence after the PFLP was implicated in a terrorist shooting, raising money for a scholarship in honor of the deceased leader. PFLP has been designated a terrorist organization by the US government. 

Another organization is the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is a self-described “Palestinian community-based organization” whose founders and members have been linked to US-designated terror groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). For example, a May 2022 Facebook post describes convicted PFLP terrorist bomber Rasmeah Odeh as one of USPCN’s “founding members.”