On May 15th and the days following, protests and events took place around the world to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), marking the day in 1948 when the state of Israel was created atop historic Palestine, and 750,000 – 900,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in what is now Israel.
An estimated 200,000 people marched in London to Downing Street, where they demanded an end to England’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
In Stockholm, thousands of people gathered at Odenplan Square, waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners reading “Stop the Zionist regime’s genocide in Palestine”.
Police attacked protests in Berlin at Potsdamer Platz :
In Athens, Greece, protesters marched first to the embassies of the United States and Israel.
Thousands of people gathered in New York City to call for an end to the Gaza genocide:
In Washington DC the protesters marched past the Washington monument to the White House to demand that Donald Trump and the US government stop aiding and abetting the genocide of the Palestinian people:
The protests come in the midst of what has been the deadliest week for Palestinians in Gaza since the March 18th bombing that killed over 400 civilians in a single night. Since then, Israeli forces have killed 50 – 100 people each day, but this average daily kill rate increased significantly over the past week, coinciding with a visit by US President Donald Trump to the region. This follows the Trump regime’s successful negotiation for the release of an Israeli-American prisoner of war through direct talks with Hamas – something that Israel has refused to do throughout their 19-month long bombing campaign.
The Israeli military has killed 53,272 Palestinians and injured 120,673 since their offensive against Gaza began on October 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. 859 Israeli civilians died on October 7th when Hamas fighters and others broke through the Israeli border fence and entered Israel for the first time since Israel put the Gaza Strip under siege in 2006. The Palestinian Government Media Office recently updated the death toll to more than 61,700, noting that thousands still missing beneath the rubble are presumed dead.
