London: Over half a million march for peace on Nakba anniversary

Simple message from Christians For Palestine

More than half a million people marched through central London to Downing Street on Saturday - the 77th anniversary of the Nakba - appealing for the UK government to stop arming Israel and take action to end to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

Protesters came from across the UK - there were many families with children, pushing prams and wheelchairs. Many faith and community groups, trade unions and artists took part.

Christians for Palestine gathered outside St John's Waterloo, before joining the march to Whitehall behind the Jewish Bloc as it came down from Embankment. It took more than two hours for the march to pass over Waterloo Bridge on the way to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. Activities for children were organised in the Strand.

The service at St John's included hymns and prayers as well as video testimonies from Palestinians living under occupation. One of the church organisers said: "It is now more than two months since the Israeli blockade of food and aid reaching the people of Gaza intensified, meaning that Gazans are now at real and imminent risk of starvation. The famine has already claimed the lives of many children. Meanwhile bombing continues and our government continues to supply arms to Israel in support of this genocidal terror.

"Today we commemorate 77 years since the Nakba - the Catastrophe - which destroyed Palestinian homes and communities and forcibly displaced the vast majority of Palestinians from their homeland. Palestinians need our solidarity more than ever."

Outside Downing Street, the marchers heard from several speakers, including Scottish historian William Dalrymple, Apsana Begum MP, Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot, actor Khalid Abdalla, Jeremy Corbyn MP, and Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD member of the Irish Parliament.

Dalrymple delivered a powerful address, condemning Britain's historic and ongoing role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He said: "The British people are not taught the dark history of our responsibility for this mess..." He highlighted the British Empire's role in disarming Palestinians, enabling the 1948 catastrophe expulsion of 750,000 people, and the dehumanising views of figures like Winston Churchill.

He said today's UK government is helping to enable Israel's genocide in Gaza through military and diplomatic support - including over 500 Royal Air Force surveillance flights allegedly aiding Israeli war crimes.

Dalrymple called out UK politicians for supporting Israel's genocide in Gaza while denouncing the silence of institutions like the BBC, and urged Britain to take responsibility by supporting Palestinian statehood and justice.

Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot lamented the suffering of the women and children in Gaza, the killing of medical staff, destruction of hospitals, schools, universities and mosques. He said it was shameful that the UK and US governments are providing weapons when mothers in Gaza can't find baby formula. He said the Nakba is not 19 months old, it has been continuing for 77 years.

Fares Amer, spokesperson for the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), delivered a rousing speech, stating: "Despite the attempts to erase the Palestinian people from existence, and to the dismay of the Zionists and their Western backers, we are still here. The aim of Israel's genocide in Gaza is to finish off the job they started 77 years ago. But they will fail."

Pádraig MacLochlainn TD said: "We will not stay silent while political leaders around the world abandon them."

The British actor Khalid Abdalla, (who played Amir in the Kite Runner and Dodi Fayed in the Crown TV series) said: "Last week we celebrated the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. This year we commemorated the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. And today we look at this world, that was built on the devastation of that time, and we see once again the rise of fascism and racist rhetoric in the centres of power. Most of us here, are beneficiaries of what has been better about these last 80 years.

"But for 77 years - an entire lifetime - the scenes we are seeing in Gaza and the West Bank today, have been repeated in one form or another generation after generation, childhood after childhood…. Gaza, Palestine, you have laid the world bare. The writing is on the wall, and our path forwards is with you.

"May a Palestinian child born now live a life of liberty and dignity, safety and play, held in their parents arms, that equals that of any child born anywhere. And may we look up to the sky with them today and say 'Enough!'"

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Watch Husam Zomlot's speech: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8Ely55bDs

and William Dalrymple's address: www.threads.com/@williamdalrymple/post/DJybEk_IXvpxmt=AQF0YT5gkow5MoY4Fl1jWetMa1AIfd24zZBrt2FamQwSQA