The rally in Whitehall started with a short video called: ‘The Nakba never ended,’ describing the history of the Nakba, and declaring: ‘Britain created the conditions of the Nakba in 1917 with the Balfour Declaration.’
The first speaker at the rally was Faris Amer of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, who said: ‘In the Nakba in 1948 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. Thousands were slaughtered. The Zionists wiped out over 500 of our towns and villages.
‘We have been subjected to unspeakable crimes. The soulless scoundrel in Downing Street still supports it all today. But they will fail and their end is coming soon.
‘The Palestinian Authority, which still engages in security coordination with Israel, does not represent us. End the security coordination with Israel. Free, free Palestine! Shout it out! Make the ground shake beneath Keir Starmer’s feet.’
Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said: ‘Unison is absolutely committed to condemning the atrocities carried out by Israel. It is now 76 days since the total blockade was imposed by Israel.
‘Hospitals are being bombed, health workers are being killed. It’s a war crime and history will judge them. End all trade with Israeli settlements. Keir Starmer, you’ve already agreed to recognise the state of Palestine. Do it now!’
Husam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, said: ‘Hundreds of thousands of you are marching through London, making London the epicentre of the global struggle for justice. We have travelled together for 19 months of genocide, 19 months of unbearable suffering.
‘Today we mark 77 years of Nakba. It’s not 77 years since the Nakba, it’s 77 years of the Nakba. In 1948 they threw two-thirds of our people out of their homes. In the last 24 hours Israel has killed 176 Palestinians in Gaza. The Nakba continues.
‘Today Israel has destroyed all of Gaza. It has killed more than 60,000 in Gaza alone. In the name of our shared humanity this must stop now. Ceasefire now! Nakba no more!
‘We will not leave our homeland. We will rebuild more schools, more hospitals. For 19 months world leaders have continued with their shameless complicity. Even as they ignore us, we grow stronger. You are an avalanche. We are a global movement and you will prevail. We must prevail! We will not be stopped. We will never give up until we achieve a free, free Palestine!’
Apsana Begum, Poplar and Limehouse MP, said: ‘The UK, EU and US continue to pursue a foreign policy with no conscience for Palestinian lives. The entire British political establishment are culpable for this genocide and it will forever haunt it’s legacy. We demand an immediate recognition of the state of Palestine now.’
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP said: ‘Despite foreign secretary David Lammy’s claims, arms sales to Israel have not been stopped. In fact, this week a Foreign Office minister admitted that the volume of UK arms parts ending up in Israel is greater under Labour than it ever was under the Tories.
‘I’m warning them, it’s quite simple. If you know a genocide is taking place and you aid and abet the genocide then you are complicit and you will face the consequences.
‘We demand our government here stop the arms supplies to Israel and recognise the state of Palestine now. The children of Gaza suffer the most abominable crimes. No more! We have to achieve the liberation of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank and the right of return.’
Then Amy Chetan invited dozens of fellow Palestinians on stage – where they held up giant cardboard keys symbolising the keys to the homes of the original expelled victims of the Nakba in 1948 – for a minute’s silence.
Next speaker was Lindsey German from Stop the War, who said: ‘Keir Starmer claimed in a racist trope this week that we’re living in an “Island of Strangers”. There are no strangers here. These are not hate marches they are the opposite. What Israel is doing is genocide. Israel is getting more and more isolated. Palestinians don’t need a US-run “Freedom Zone”, they need a Palestinian state. Starmer should go and take his racist ideas with him.’
Historian William Dalrymple said: ‘In the Nakba 77 years ago Palestinians were massacred with napalm, machine guns and machettes. 85% of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed by the end of 1948. We’re next to Downing Street where it all began. This country has the historic responsibility to cure the mess that it created.
‘This week Israeli minister Smotrich said that Gaza will be completely destroyed and its population will leave. Three days ago Labour, Tories and Reform gathered at a party called by the Israeli ambassador to celebrate the Nakba.
‘Shamefully, more weapons have left these shores for Israel in the past months under Labour than under the Tories. Our dreams are not fantasy, they are an urgent reality. We dream of a Palestinian state where as before, Muslims, Christians, Jews and people of no religion can live together. We know this night will not last forever and we dream of freedom for Palestine.’
Ismael Patel, of Friends of Al Aqsa, said: ‘The founders of Israel used to say of the Nakba in 1948, that the old will die and the new will forget. But we will never forget. The ongoing Nakba is not an accident. The UK has enabled Israel’s war crimes. We will not allow the UK government to continue supporting the ongoing Nakba. We are the voices against racism. A free Palestine is not a dream. With your efforts we will make it a reality, sooner rather than later.’
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teachers union, said: ‘I bring greetings from the half a million members of the NEU to this half a million-strong rally. We call on Lammy and Starmer to recognise the UK’s role in the scholasticide taking place in Gaza. Your support of Israel enables it. Fascism starts with political leaders convincing the nation that their neighbours are strangers. We are not strangers, we are friends of every race and we are going to build a world of peace.’
Leah Mohammed, who stood as a pro-Palestine candidate against Wes Streeting in Ilford North in last July’s general election and came within 500 votes of beating him, said: ‘I was born with the wound of the Nakba. It expunged my grandparents from their land. Israel is the colonial offshoot of the violent west. Just look at our war criminal foreign secretary Lammy who claimed that Britain has stopped arming Israel when it certainly hasn’t. And Wes Streeting is banning NHS workers from showing support for Palestine. Also shame on all the Arab Zionists who welcomed Trump. But no colonial power lasts forever and their days are numbered. The liberation of Palestine is not a question of if, it is a question of when, and it must be now!’
Sinn Fein TD in the Irish parliament, Padraig Mac Lochlainn, said: ‘Today the Israeli government has called up tens of thousands of reservists. Our governments must take firm action. Sanctions now. For over 70 days no food has gone into Gaza and half a million are now facing starvation. We in Ireland know the reality of a man-made famine. I have faith in the spirit of resistance of the Palestinian people.’
Actor Khalid Abdalla said: ‘For 77 years the scenes we are seeing in Gaza today have been going on and that is why we say the Nakba never ended. Gaza will be your Iraq Keir Starmer. It already is. For the people of Gaza and Palestine the signs are everywhere – you are not alone. The struggle for a free Palestine is the civil rights movement of our time.’
Jerome Legrand, French MP, said: ‘Last week, Netanyahu said he expects most Palestinians will leave Gaza and he’s looking for other countries to take them. But he’s wrong. They won’t leave. I want to send greetings to the people in Israel who have the courage to stand up against their government.’
Adnan Hussain, MP for Blackburn, said: ‘The Nakba has reached boiling point and is now bubbling over. Not only are the Palestinians being ethnically cleansed from their lands but a genocide is underway. The legacy of the advance in technology is that drones are being used to take the lives of little children.’
Ann Wright from the Gaza Freedom Flotillah, said: ‘In Malta the Israeli military bombed our ship, the Conscience. But we will not retreat. We must stop the starvation of the Palestinian people.’
Jenine Hourani, Palestine Youth Movement, said: ‘Over the past 48 hours over 300 people have been massacred. We, the grandchildren of the Nakba generation, say here today that we will never be wiped out because we know our history. They extract recourses from our land, they exploit us and they criminalise us. But we won’t be stopped. The UK, since the beginning of this genocide has sent immense amounts of arms to Israel. We demand the immediate resignation of David Lammy.
‘We have a role to play in exposing the ruling class in this country. From the belly of the beast we can confront the ruling class and the arms manufacturers, we can confront Zionism, we can confront imperialism and we can win.’
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, from the Jewish Bloc, said: ‘I’m 72 and in all my years I’ve never witnessed such horrors as are going on in Gaza for the last 19 months. I’ve never been so ashamed at all the Jews parroting the Zionist lies that Palestine deserves genocide. But the cracks are appearing. We’ve approached the Met and asked them to meet with us to explain that a huge number of Jews oppose Israel’s actions and support these marches.’
Yasmeen Adam, Muslim Association of Britain, said: ‘The project of dehumanising Palestinians began a long time ago. The ideology of Zionism has always been about the extermination of Palestinians but it has failed to erase the Palestinians. The final word is not genocide. The final word will be freedom.’
The last speaker was Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who said: ‘Today we have marched 500,000-strong. 70,000 children are being treated for acute malnutrition. Israel is now using starvation as a weapon of war. We have a health secretary Streeting who has issued new measures to stop health workers expressing support for Palestine. We salute the members of the Co-op who have voted overwhelmingly to remove Israeli goods from their shelves.’
