Nakba 77 demonstrations

As Israel continues to bombard Gaza, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Britain in protest. Here’s a report with photographs from rs21 members on yesterday’s Nakba 77 demonstrations.

Solidarity protests were held across the world this week to mark 77 years since the Nakba. The Arabic word for catastrophe, ‘Nakba’ is the term used to describe the expulsion of Palestinians from their land when the state of Israel was founded. From 1947 to 1949 a majority of Palestinians were ‘violently evicted from their homes and their communities. Families were broken up, often never to see each other again’. However, the Nakba is not just a historical event that we remember but rather the opening chapter of an ongoing genocide, fuelled by US and British military support and arms sales, in the aid of Western imperialist interests, which Palestinians continue to resist.

In Gaza, just this weekend, more than 100 people have been killed by Israeli military strikes, with the Israel state systematically targeting hospitals. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership released a report saying that Gaza’s entire 2.1 million population is at risk of famine, with the World Health Organisation stating that Palestinians are ‘starving, sick and dying’ as Israel intensifies a three month blockade of aid and essential supplies to the territory.

On Saturday there were demonstrations in London and Edinburgh and smaller protests in towns and cities around Britain. Protests were held on the same day that the annual general meeting of the Co-op, one of Britain’s biggest supermarket chains, voted to end all links with Israel, pledging to “show moral courage and leadership” by taking “all Israeli products off the shelves.” The protests represented the diversity and depth of the opposition to Israel’s genocide. The mosques mobilised, the trade unions mobilised, people came from all over calling for an end to the genocide, an end to apartheid, and for Palestine liberation. Protestors raised slogans demanding an end to British complicity in the genocide and an end to all arms sales to the Israeli state.

London

The London demonstration was a national mobilisation called by a coalition of organisations including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War Coalition. It was huge, with around half a million on the streets.

Edinburgh

In Edinburgh two to three thousand people marched from the Mound in the city centre to a rally at the Scottish Parliament as part of the national mobilisation in Scotland.