All out in Manchester on Saturday, 20 June, 12pm, Piccadilly Gardens.
The story of the Palestinian people has been one of ongoing forced displacement and loss. Palestinians were expelled from their homes in 1948 by Zionist militias to pave the way for the establishment of Israel on 78% of Palestine. In 1967, Israel finalised its occupation of the entirety of Palestine by occupying the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. From these two mass expulsions Israel created the largest refugee population in the world – the Palestinians, who are denied return to their homeland.
Since its establishment, Israel has subjected the Palestinians, whether in Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem and 48 Palestine, to a multitude of policies aimed at driving them out of their homes, including through direct expulsion, home demolitions, land confiscation, settlement expansion and turning their lives into misery.
In Gaza, over 2 million people – the majority of which are refugees expelled during 1948 – have been enduring a genocide for over two years. During this time, where Israel committed the most unimaginable crimes, people’s homes were destroyed by Israel’s monstrous murder machinery, and countless families are now living in makeshift and rundown tents. In the West Bank, during the last two years, the Israeli army emptied the refugee camps of their residents, making Palestinians undergo yet another forced displacement. This is on top of daily settler attacks on Palestinian people and property to force people into leaving their homes.
We choose to mark Refugee Week by focusing on the Palestinian refugees, inside and outside of Palestine, and their struggle for return and liberation. Especially here in Britain, which paved the way for the Israeli colonisation of Palestine by promising Palestine to the Zionist movement and aiding it in implementing its settler project, honouring Palestinian refugees and their right of return becomes an even bigger duty.
So join us on Saturday 12pm!
