Palestinians mark 54th anniversary of Naksa Day

Palestinians mark 54th anniversary of Naksa Day
Palestinians and their supporters marched on Friday to mark the anniversary of the displacement of nearly 400,000 Palestinians, in addition to the hundreds of thousands who were displaced in 1948.
2 min read
06 June, 2021
Palestinians protest the ongoing Israeli occupation [Getty]

Palestinians marked on Friday the 54th anniversary of the '', or ' the setback', with rallies in cities across the world amid escalating tensions in Israel and the .

In 1967, the began on June 5, leading Israel to triple its size and begin the longest occupation in modern history.

After launching pre-emptive strikes against Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria, Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, taking control of a territory it hadn't been able to occupy during the Arab–Israeli War in 1948.

Palestinians and their supporters marched on Friday to mark the anniversary of the displacement of nearly 400,000 Palestinians, in addition to the hundreds of thousands who were displaced in 1948.

Marches were held in the US, a staunch ally of Israel, in cities including New York, Huston, Detroit and Auckland.

In Palestine, a march held in Jerusalem's embattled neighbourhood of resulted in further violence as Israeli forces used violence to disperse the crowd.

Many took to social media to express their grief and share personal stories of displacement.

"On this day, my father & his family stayed in a cave for 6 days before returning home and finding their village under Israeli control," one user wrote.

Israel annexed 44% of the territory allocated by the 1947 UN Partition Plan for a Palestinian state, marking the beginning of over half a century of brutal occupation of a land they believed was promised to them by God.

Despite a number of UN resolutions in favour of a withdrawal from these territories, Israel continues to occupy all of the annexed territories with the exception of the Sinai Peninsula, which it retreated from in 1982 following a peace treaty with Egypt.