Hundreds of thousands expected in London on 78th anniversary of Nakba

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators will gather in London on Saturday 16 May to mark 78 years since the Nakba. They’ll demand an end to UK complicity with Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, its apartheid and the genocide in Gaza.

The march is the annual, globally observed occasion to mark the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic. This was when 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and 500 towns and villages destroyed in the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. This is the 78th year since the Nakba.

The commemoration signifies the determination of Palestinians not to forgo or abandon their homeland. It’s an ongoing insistence on their full rights to freedom and justice, including the right of return, under international law. Palestinians sometimes carry keys, or models of keys, symbolising their hope to return to their stolen homes.

Nakba continues

Israel’s bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip have not ended. At least 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023 and over 170 000 injured. Israel has devastated the territory with large scale attacks damaging or destroying 90% of infrastructure.

Israel has imposed a line of control that displaces Palestinians to less than 50% of the previous inhabited space. And it continues to deny sufficient access for humanitarian supplies of food, medicine and shelter.

In the West Bank, Israel’s illegal military occupation has accelerated towards de facto annexation. There has been a surge in settlement expansion policies and settler violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In February, Israel’s security cabinet approved measures that expand Israeli rule and governance over the occupied West Bank. The move faced wide condemnation as a breach of international law.

The UK government has refused to accept a genocide is taking place in Gaza. And by continuing arms exports and political and economic support to Israel it fails to uphold its duties under the Genocide Convention. It continues to make superficial criticism of Israeli policy in the West Bank, without any material action such as sanctions.

The Nakba demonstration takes place on the same day as a far-right rally organised by convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, who professes his support for Israel.

Despite the track record of violence and the expression of racist views at his protests, the Metropolitan police have allowed Unite the Kingdom to use Whitehall while relegating the Palestine march to Pall Mall.

The UN expert on such things has expressed concern over the way the Met is policing protest.

Simon Foster, PSC deputy director, said:

After 78 years of Nakba we know that the rationalisations that have allowed the British political establishment to normalise Israel’s ethnic cleansing, military occupation, apartheid, and now genocide, are exhausted.

There can be no valid reason or excuse for complicity in Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Nakba began in 1948, but it was not a single event, it is ongoing. The same logic of ethnic supremacism, use of overwhelming violence and disregard of international law is being displayed by Israel now as it was then.

This can only continue and worsen because Israel is afforded impunity by states such as the UK, which refuses to use the range of mechanisms of boycott, divestment and sanction available to it, and instead treat Israel as an ally.

Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper want to continue to assert they are doing everything they can. But their words are empty of meaning when we see them continuing to supply the Israeli military and cover up for the crimes of its state.

History will condemn them, and one day they will be held accountable for their actions.

Featured image via the Canary