A group of protestors held a rally in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Tuesday condemning England for what they said was its support of Israel’s “ongoing massacres” in Palestine.
The protestors, mobilized by the Ankara Palestine Solidarity Platform, gathered outside the British Embassy in Ankara, carrying Turkish and English banners that said, “Get your bloody hands off of Gaza,” “UK: United Killers” and “Co-conspirator killers will be held accountable.”
“Israel was founded on May 14, 1948, in Palestine with the encouragement and support of England and Zionist terrorists today continue massacring Palestinians emboldened by England’s diplomatic, military and financial support,” the platform’s spokesperson Ahmet Tayyib Serdar said at the rally held on the 76th anniversary of the Nakhba – the Great Catastrophe.
Palestinians use the word "Nakhba" in reference to the events of 1948, when armed Zionist militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes and villages under the pressure of bombing and mass massacres in the historical lands of Palestine, pushing them further into the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and neighboring countries, in a major ethnic cleansing move prior to the announcement of the independence of Israel.
According to a report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, since 1948, around 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs have been killed both inside and outside Palestine.
On May 15 of every year, Palestinians worldwide commemorate the Nakhba through a series of activities and events.
On the evening of May 14, 1948, Israel was announced as a state on the land of historic Palestine and the U.S. was the first country in the world to recognize it.
On the Nakhba anniversary, the Palestinians remember the Nov. 2, 1917, Balfour declaration, a document that laid the groundwork for Israel's creation.
Under that declaration or promise, Britain granted the land of Palestine, which it did not own, to the Zionist movement to establish a "national home."
“While it was officially and unofficially ruling Palestine in 1948, it was England that unleased Zionism on Muslims. That’s why we are here in front of the British Embassy today to condemn the oppressors and their collaborators,” Serdar told reporters in Ankara.
The platform is calling out to England and its “collaborators” to prevent Israel’s invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza and “stop being complicit in Israel’s crimes,” Serdar said. “If you want to repair your diminishing reputation in the eyes of the world, even just a little, pressure the Zionist gang for an immediate cease-fire.”
He also said the platform salutes civilian initiatives and students at British universities who have been protesting against the British government’s cooperation with Israel and calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“We are calling on all authorities who have been complicit in this atrocity, who have remained silent or inactive, to heed the call of their conscience and act,” Serdar said.
At least 35,173 Palestinians have been killed and 79,061 others injured in a brutal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
