By Aysu Bicer
LONDON (AA) - Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched Saturday through central London to commemorate 77 years since the “Nakba,” or “Catastrophe,” and demand an end to UK support for Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.
The mass mobilization demanded that the British government immediately end arms sales to Israel and halt what protesters described as complicity in a genocide against the Palestinian people.
The demonstration, held under the banner of Nakba 77, marked the number of years since the forced displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
The Nakba resulted in the permanent displacement of more than half the Palestinian population, according to the UN.
At the front of the march, several generations of Palestinians carried large symbolic house keys representing the right of return to homes their families were expelled from in 1948.
Protesters chanted: "End UK complicity with the Gaza genocide. Nakba77, Exist, resist, return. Palestine 48," as they moved along a designated route.
Before of the march, the Metropolitan Police announced that Public Order Act conditions would apply, setting out specific zones where demonstrators must remain.
"Today, we march to commemorate the Nakba, and we march at a moment where the roots of that catastrophe, the Zionist project for the complete erasure and displacement of the Palestinian people, is now manifesting itself in a full-blown genocide," said Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director Ben Jamal.
"Today, we mark the fact that for 77 years of Nakba, successive British government and political institutions in this country have sent support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people, and right now, we bring this message to our government: How. in the name of humanity, is it possible that you sustain this complicity and your support for Israel even as it uses starvation as a weapon of war?"
"Today, we will be led by a cohort of Palestinians carrying the keys, the symbol that they have never lost hope. The symbol of their endurance through 77 years of Nakba. I hope and an endurance that they pass down through the generations, like the keys to their home," he said.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign also issued a statement: "Right now, with the help of the British government, Israel is deliberately starving more than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
Around 290,000 Palestinian children are on the brink of death in Gaza, including 3,500 under the age of 5 who face imminent starvation.
Demonstrators demanded the UK government stop arms exports to Israel, end its support for Israeli military operations and take immediate action to push for humanitarian relief and an end to what they described as systematic ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.