BERLIN (Dispatches) --
Demonstrations have been held in cities across the U.S., Australia, Europe and elsewhere to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, which marks the 1948 forced expulsion of nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in historical Palestine as the occupying regime of Israel proclaimed its illegal existence.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied in many U.S. cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal and Dearborn, Michigan to show solidarity with Palestinians and call for an end to Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip.
About 2,000 people turned out in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn in New York, chanting “Free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
They waved Palestinian flags and held placards that read “End Israeli Apartheid” and “Freedom for Gaza.”
Many protesters wore black and white, and red and white, keffiyeh scarves, while drivers sounded car horns and motorcyclists revved their engines as the sun beat down.
Several Jewish people also attended the rally, carrying placards that read “Not in my name” and “Solidarity with Palestine” as the protesters took over a street in the area.
A few dozen police officers looked on at the peaceful protest, dubbed “Defend Palestine.”
“I’m here because I want a Palestinian life to equal an Israeli life and today it doesn’t,” 35-year-old Emraan Khan, a corporate strategist from Manhattan said, as he waved a Palestinian flag.
“Palestinians have the right to live freely and children in Gaza should not be being killed,” Alison Zambrano, a 20-year-old student, said.
Mashhour Ahmad, a 73-year-old Palestinian who has lived in New York for 50 years, said, “I’m telling Mr. Biden and his cabinet to stop supporting the killing. Support the victims, stop the oppression.”
“The violence committed by the Israeli army recently is genocide,” he added, raising a poster above his head that said “Free Palestine, End the occupation.”
Separately, throngs of people gathered in Copley Square in Boston, while hundreds rallied on the Washington Monument grounds in the U.S. capital.
Similar pro-Palestine rallies were held in San Francisco and San Diego as well.
Elsewhere in the Canadian city of Montreal, several thousand people called for “the liberation of Palestine” during a mass demonstration.
The protesters also denounced “war crimes” committed by Israeli troops in Gaza, and carried placards condemning the Tel Aviv regime for violating international law.
Earlier, a caravan of cars sounded their horns and drove with Palestinian flags outside the Israeli consulate in the western part of Montreal.
In Australia, thousands of people marched through the streets in Sydney and Melbourne in solidarity with the people living in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Men, women and children waved flags and placards as they chanted “Long live Palestine.” They called carried pictures of veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot by Zionist troops on Wednesday as she was covering an army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
In central Melbourne, protesters holding Palestinian flags commemorated the Nakba Day. People also took part in a pro-Palestine rally in the city of Auckland, and paid tribute to Abu Akleh.
Hundreds of people also demonstrated outside the Storting building, which is the seat of parliament of Norway, in the capital Oslo.
In London, throngs of people gathered in front of Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), before marching to Number 10, the official residence and executive office of the prime minister, in Downing Street.
They participants waved Palestinian flags, chanted slogans and expressed anger at the ongoing brutal oppression of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces.
The protesters called for a swift and independent investigation to bring the killers of the veteran journalist to justice. They signed a memorial book in honor of the slain reporter.
“Shireen Abu Akleh is the 55th journalist to be murdered by Israeli occupation forces since 2000,” a placard put up next to the memorial book read.
Similar protests were held in other European capitals.
In the Austrian capital city of Vienna, thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators took to the streets to mark Nakba Day. Demonstrations were also held in Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark.
Dozens of Zionist settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of occupied Al-Quds under the protection of Israeli forces on Sunday.
The official Palestinian news agency