Thousands gather to mark 75 years of Nakba

On a cloudy day in Lon­don, over 10,000 pro­tes­tors made their way from the BBC head­quar­ters to Down­ing Street amid a sea of Pales­tin­ian flags. Chants of ​“One, two, three, four, occu­pa­tion no more”, ​“Free, free Pales­tine” and ​“We want boy­cotts, we want sanc­tions” filled the streets as those in atten­dance also held keys rep­re­sent­ing the right of Pales­tini­ans to return to their homes under inter­na­tion­al law.

Pro­tes­tors were there to com­mem­o­rate the 75^th anniver­sary of the Nak­ba (Ara­bic for ​‘cat­a­stro­phe’) – the vio­lent expul­sion of 750,000 Pales­tini­ans from their ances­tral homes and the destruc­tion of 500 vil­lages and towns. Dur­ing their so-called ​‘War of Inde­pen­dence’, Zion­ist mil­i­tary forces cap­tured 78% of his­toric Pales­tine, divid­ing the remain­ing 22% into what is now the occu­pied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. As demon­stra­tors often point­ed out, the Nak­ba is not an event that sim­ply took place 75 years ago, but an ongo­ing process of eth­nic cleans­ing and dis­pos­ses­sion of Pales­tini­ans – more of an open wound than a scar.

The protests on Sat­ur­day (13 May) took place fol­low­ing a recent esca­la­tion in Israeli vio­lence. Last week, Israeli air strikes killed at least 33 Pales­tini­ans in Gaza, with retal­ia­to­ry rock­ets from Gaza killing two peo­ple in Israel. ​“It’s no coin­ci­dence that in the same week that we are mark­ing 75 years since the Nak­ba, Israel is tar­get­ing fam­i­ly homes and killing Pales­tin­ian chil­dren in Gaza,” said Shami­ul Jor­don, Head of Pub­lic affairs at Friends of Al-Asqa (FoA), the organ­i­sa­tion who co-organ­ised the demon­stra­tion. ​“This is exact­ly what the ongo­ing Nak­ba looks like.” A cease­fire was called on Sat­ur­day, but for Gazans liv­ing in the open air prison there will be no ​“return to calm,” as it is often framed by the main­stream media, until Israel ceas­es its occupation.

Those at the demon­stra­tion assert­ed that Israel has sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly denied the Nak­ba, ban­ning pub­lic ref­er­ences to it and hid­ing evi­dence of the events of 1948. In 1948, David Ben-Guri­on, Israel’s first Prime Min­is­ter, infa­mous­ly said about Pales­tini­ans: ​“The old will die and the young will forget.”

The Israeli state pro­hibits Pales­tin­ian cit­i­zens from com­mem­o­rat­ing the Nak­ba in pub­lic cer­e­monies. Despite efforts to rewrite the past, the demon­stra­tion on Sat­ur­day made clear that the dias­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty has, and will con­tin­ue to, raise its voice about the ongo­ing Nak­ba. Speak­ing to the crowds out­side Down­ing Street, Leanne Moham­mad, a 22-year-old Pales­tin­ian activist, said: ​“They said as time went on, that peo­ple would stop car­ing. They were wrong. For 75 years we have lived in exile and endured fam­i­ly trau­ma, but we will nev­er for­get our roots or the right to return.”

Calls for recog­ni­tion of the Nak­ba are only grow­ing loud­er. Today (15 May), on what is offi­cial­ly known as Nak­ba Day, the Unit­ed Nations will stage a high-lev­el spe­cial meet­ing to recog­nise the anniver­sary – the first time the inter­na­tion­al body has com­mem­o­rat­ed the date. Last week, US Con­gress­woman Rashi­da Tlaib intro­duced a res­o­lu­tion, put for­ward in the US House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, to recog­nise the Nak­ba – a mea­sure which comes amid a grow­ing push by US pro­gres­sives to advance Pales­tin­ian rights and restrict US aid to Israel.

Through­out the demon­stra­tion, there were calls for the British gov­ern­ment to recog­nise its com­plic­i­ty in the Nak­ba and to end its sup­port of Israeli apartheid. ​“Britain [has been] instru­men­tal in cre­at­ing the State of Israel, the process of the Nak­ba and the eth­nic cleans­ing of the Pales­tini­ans,” said Ismail Patel, the founder of FoA, explain­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the deci­sion to begin the march out­side the BBC. ​“The British gov­ern­ment and insti­tu­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly the BBC, must start to recog­nise the role we play in the dis­place­ment of the Pales­tin­ian people.”

Patel con­tin­ued: ​“One of the things Pales­tin­ian peo­ple are suf­fer­ing from is a lack of cov­er­age in the main­stream media and hence, what the protests do is bring peo­ple togeth­er and make them under­stand that they’re not alone.”

Almost exact­ly one year before the march, on 13^th May 2022, peo­ple gath­ered in the same spot out­side the BBC in a vig­il hon­our­ing Shireen Abu Akleh – the renowned vet­er­an jour­nal­ist for Al Jazeera, who was shot dead dur­ing an Israeli mil­i­tary raid in the West Bank town of Jenin. The deci­sion to hold the vig­il there was to high­light the ​“bias of the BBC,” which ​“large­ly ignores Israel’s atroc­i­ties,” said the Pales­tin­ian Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign in a tweet. On Sat­ur­day, many peo­ple wore badges and stick­ers and held signs show­ing Abu Akleh’s image.

Speak­ers at the ral­ly out­side Down­ing Street – which includ­ed Jere­my Cor­byn MP, John McDon­nell MP, and Husam Zom­lot, the Pales­tin­ian ambas­sador to the UK – also high­light­ed the role of the media in uphold­ing Israeli apartheid. ​“All we hear in the UK from main­stream media [is] lies upon lies upon lies… these lies are not just about his­to­ry, but the truth,” said Zom­lot. “[It is] the con­ceal­ment of what hap­pened 75 years ago and is ongo­ing… they’re about hid­ing the truth and hid­ing Israel’s many, many crimes and the sys­tem of colo­nial apartheid”.

Zom­lot con­tin­ued: ​“They seized our homes, they stole our har­vests, they robbed us of our coun­try. They are try­ing to rob us of the truth and of our his­to­ry. But we will not allow them to rob us of our future.”

McDon­nell promised to do every­thing he could to block anti-boy­cott, divest­ment and sanc­tions (BDS) leg­is­la­tion pass­ing in Par­lia­ment. (BDS is a Pales­tin­ian-led move­ment pro­mot­ing boy­cotts, divest­ments, and eco­nom­ic sanc­tions against Israel).

He also demand­ed jus­tice for Abu Akleh and the oth­er jour­nal­ists who’d lost their lives report­ing the truth about the occu­pa­tion. Speak­ing back­stage at the ral­ly, Cor­byn echoed the impor­tance of BDS: ​“It’s time for the British gov­ern­ment not to make it ille­gal to boy­cott Israeli goods, but to recog­nise the injus­tice that has been found in courts all over the world, and to sup­port the right of the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple to live in peace.”

In his speech at the ral­ly, Cor­byn said: ​“For those that think we are going to go away, dream on and think on. We will nev­er give up on the rights of the Pales­tin­ian people.”

Ben Jamal, Direc­tor of the Pales­tin­ian Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign, closed the day by pledg­ing: ​“We will nev­er stop strug­gling until Pales­tine is free.” The mes­sage from pro­tes­tors was loud and clear: the Nak­ba nev­er end­ed. Now more than ever, peo­ple must fight for the free­dom of Palestinians.

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