File:The key of return (52081830136).jpg

"واحتج الآلاف في لندن على مقتل الصحفية شيرين أبو عاقلة "زهرة فلسطين

Protesters hold up "keys of return." As Shireen Abu Akleh commented in her last broadcast before she was murdered by Israeli forces on Wednesday 11 May.

'Many Palestinians are still holding onto the keys to their homes from where they were forced out. They still yearn to return to their homes. That is the life of refugees.'

On Saturday 14 May, thousands assembled in London, both to commemorate the Nakba and also to protest the murder by the Israeli Army of the veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh ("the voice of Palestine"), while she was covering one of many recent raids by the Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday 11 May, against the West Bank town of Jenin.

SHIREEN ABU AKLEH'S MURDER

"And if they ask you about Palestine, tell them: In it there is a martyr, nursed by a martyr, photographed by a martyr, sent off by a martyr, and prayed for by a martyr" ( Mahmoud Darwish)

Initially, Israeli authorities insisted that she had been killed by Palestinian gunmen, but on the ground examination of the video used to support this claim by the leading Israeli human rights NGO B'Tselem, clearly demonstrated that it was taken far from the location where Shireen had been shot dead in the face, despite the fact that she was wearing a flack jacket and helmet, both clearkly marked 'Press.' Other Journalists who were present at the scene also testified that it was Israeli soldiers who fired the lethal shots, and that there was no clash as was first claimed, a claim which was also echoed by the mainstream media in Britain and the United States.

Her murder came just days after the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) and the International Federation of Journalists had filed an official complaint at the Hague against Israel for 'the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists,' with an estimate of fifty having been killed in the last twenty years according to PJS records.

Palestinian anger mounted on Friday 13 May, when Israeli police attacked the mourners in East Jerusalem with batons as they exited St. Joseph's Hospital with the coffin on the way to a local church. Al Jazeera's live video coverage and the testimony of witnesses all seemed to indicate that the attack was entirely unprovoked, with no evidence of 'stone throwing' as suggested by Israeli authorities.

Even had there been any such incident, the police action was entirely disproportionate, smashing a window of the hearse to remove a Palestine flag and her coffin was momentarily dropped as the police attacked even the pallbearers. As the assault was broadcast live around the world, it seemed to be yet further evidence of the complete impunity Israel believes it has, due to the almost unconditional support it receives from the United States, Britain and other Western nations. Diplomatic statements of concern are the most severe sanction the West ever imposes.

In a pathetic response to a question raised in parliament, Amanda Milling, Minister of State for Asia and the Middle East, explained that she had 'publicly expressed my sadness upon hearing the news of the tragic death of veteran Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, and called for a thorough investigation... The safety of journalists across the globe is vital and they must be protected when carrying out their critical work.' It seems Israel will once again escape any meaningful consequence for its actions.

However, it's not just that the United Kingdom turns a blind eye to Israeli violence - it also actively supports it.

Israeli pilots are routinely invited to the UK to train alongside the RAF, while the British and Israeli navies also routinely engage in joint exercises, all at a time when Israel's air force regularly attacks civilian infrastructure in Gaza (including Al Jazeera's offices in May 2021) killing 64 civilians since 2010 and when Israel's navy operates to blockade Gaza, where as a consequence one third of essential drugs are unavailable, 54% of the population are food insecure and 95% of the population have no access to safe drinking water.

<a href="https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/how-the-uk-military-supports-israels-oppression-of-palestinians/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.stopwar.org.uk/article/how-the-uk-military-supports-i...</a>

<a href="https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-warship-docks-in-israel-signifying-growing-cooperation/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-warship-docks-in-israel-s...</a>

<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/humanitarian-situation-in-the-gaza-strip-fast-facts-ocha-factsheet/#:~:text=The population of Gaza is,in the past six years" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.un.org/unispal/humanitarian-situation-in-the-gaza-str...</a>.

<a href="https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/gaza-strip</a>

Israel's largest arms company, Elbit Systems, also continues to run subsidiaries within the UK, and the UK continues to supply Israel with crucial military equipment, particularly for aircraft and radar systems.

<a href="https://caat.org.uk/data/countries/israel/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">caat.org.uk/data/countries/israel/</a>

<a href="https://declassifieduk.org/why-were-trying-to-shut-down-israels-arms-factories-in-britain/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">declassifieduk.org/why-were-trying-to-shut-down-israels-a...</a>

COMMEMORATION OF THE NAKBA

Palestine solidarity demonstrations to commemorate the Nakba are held annually in London, usually on the Saturday before Nakba Day (15 May), the commemoration of the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Israel, which accelerated following the declaration of establishment of the state of Israel on 14 May 1948.

Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion had informed his political and military colleagues that an Israeli state in which Jews made up only 60 per cent of the population was not viable. As Israeli historian Ilan Pappe points out, the obvious implication was that "the fewer Palestinians in a Jewish state the better."

<a href="https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3809-the-nakba-and-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.versobooks.com/blogs/3809-the-nakba-and-the-ethnic-cl...</a>

The Nakba had already started as early as November 1947 as British forces. which controlled the Palestine mandate, withdrew to the Port of Haifa leaving Jewish paramilitary groups to control the remaining areas. By May 1948 300,000 Arab residents of the areas within Palestine designated to become Israel had already been expelled, including many Arab residents Jaffa, Safad, Beisan, Acre and Western Jerusalem. That amounted to nearly two out of every five Arabs living on what would be Israel's side of the demarcation line. Most of the remainder were forced out of their homes in the subsequent months.

Israel's military ethnically cleansed some 530 Palestinian towns and villages, destroying almost all the mosques and many of the houses and committing appalling crimes against those Palestinians who had chosen to remain despite the threat of violence. It is estimated that some 15,000 Palestinians were murdered.