London- At the invitation of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom, many British politicians and public figures participated – yesterday, Wednesday – in the historic City Hall Hall in London in the ceremony commemorating the 76th Nakba, in cooperation with the Council of Arab Ambassadors.
This call comes several days after the cancellation of the Nakba commemoration ceremony in the Netherlands due to pressure faced by the Palestinian embassy.
The Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, opened the demonstration with a speech via video technology, and stressed the necessity of declaring an independent State of Palestine, and that the Nakba “is a sinful and criminal act repeated throughout history, and that what is happening in the Gaza Strip can only be called “ethnic cleansing,” and condemned “international impotence.” “The obvious” about saving Gaza.
Special meaning
Tel Aviv Tribune Net met with a number of participants in commemorating the Nakba, including the Palestinian Ambassador to Britain, Hossam Zomlot, who stated that the City Hall hall, which hosted the demonstration, has a special meaning, as it is in the middle of Westminster Square, and is located near the House of Commons and the headquarters of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. .
Zomlot added that this hall hosted the first United Nations General Assembly, and that it is necessary to give a platform to the witnesses of the Nakba, including those who witnessed it, such as the British surgeon of Palestinian origin, Ghassan Abu Sitta, who attended the ceremony, and the activist from Gaza, Moataz Azaizeh.
The Palestinian ambassador stressed the need to give witnesses to the Nakba an opportunity to speak before politicians, mayors, and all of British society, not only about the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people, but about their insistence on gaining and seizing their freedom and independence on their land and their return to it.
“We are betting on the peoples. We go everywhere, Scotland and Wales, and we address students, workers and different segments because we are betting on the peoples who support the peoples, the peoples who liberated South Africa after a major international campaign against the apartheid system, and this is what is happening now in all universities and villages, including London.” With 16 British universities, this is an international landmark moment to uproot the Israeli occupation and end the ongoing Nakba,” Zomlot says.
Prevention and fairness
For his part, the British surgeon of Palestinian origin, Ghassan Abu Sitta, who was prevented from attending Nakba commemoration activities in the Netherlands, stressed the necessity of continuing to commemorate the Nakba despite the pressure.
He stressed that preventing him was an attempt to silence the Palestinian voice, deprive him of his right to expression, and prevent him from testifying about Israeli war crimes in Gaza. He explained that the German judiciary was fair to him and the travel ban was immediately lifted, and he recognized his right to enter the country.
For his part, Bakr Aweida, a Palestinian journalist – who introduced himself as a survivor of the Nakba and a year older than it – stated that despite all the horrors he heard from his mother, he feels that what is happening now in Gaza is much uglier than the 1948 Nakba.
He told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that commemorating the annual Palestinian Nakba in London was necessary after attempts to limit its organization in several European cities. Appreciating the speech of former Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan (from the Conservative Party), and stressing the importance of hearing the voice of a British politician like Duncan, who acknowledges the extent of what the United Kingdom has caused in Palestine.
Tel Aviv Tribune Net met with Duncan – who held two ministerial portfolios as Minister of International Development and Minister of Europe and the Americas – and he in turn affirmed his full solidarity with the Palestinian cause, saying, “I was honored to be invited to speak in commemoration of 76 years of the Nakba and occupation. This is something that cannot be forgotten.”
Duncan rejected what the Israelis were doing, and said that Israel “is a state that does not comply with international law, and that it is time to declare Palestine a state.”
Solid drive
Sir Alan Duncan condemned international attempts to prevent the commemoration of the Nakba, and stressed that the Palestinians have the freedom to commemorate this memory, and that countries must criticize Israel for its oppression of the Palestinians and its non-compliance with international law.
“We have not heard enough from the UK government condemning the construction of illegal settlements, nor what is happening in Gaza, and with everything that is happening there, Israel is still able to build settlements, and this is the time when the United Nations must condemn it,” Duncan adds. .
In the same context, former British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that they have had a solid solidarity campaign with Palestine in London for several decades, and have organized 14 massive national marches since the seventh of last October, and he considers them the result of decades of solidarity with Palestine.
Corbyn said, “We are not only commemorating the Nakba this year. The feelings this year are greater because of what the Palestinians are going through and the repeated displacement. We are uniting with Muslims, Christians, Jews and Indians in marches in solidarity with the Palestinians.”
The leftist British politician welcomed the university movement, which – in his opinion – confirms that students – despite the pressure they are subjected to by threats of expulsion from colleges and the imposition of sanctions on them – are determined to stand against tyranny, “which is similar to the protests of American students against the Vietnam War.”
As for the Labor Party MP, Sam Tari, he explained that the representatives who participated in the ceremony commemorating the Nakba came to commemorate and remember 76 years of resistance.
Tari said, “The Nakba is still ongoing. I believe we are here to mourn 76 years of injustice, and one day we will go to an independent and free Palestine because justice must be achieved, and the liberation and independence of Palestine is its most basic right, along with the right of the Palestinians to return to their country.”