Tens of thousands march on Whitehall as pro-Palestine protesters remember Nakba

Pro-Palestine demonstrators marched through London yesterday in their tens of thousands to mark the anniversary of Nakba.

- TOM WATLING

The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), began at Embankment before heading down to Big Ben, across the river to Waterloo, then over the bridge and down to the doors outside Downing Street.

The PSC said the march was intended to “mark the 77th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba and demand our government take action to end the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land”.

The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, is the name Palestinians give to the violent displacement of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages during the fighting surrounding the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, which resulted in the permanent displacement of more than half the Palestinian population, according to the UN.