A march took place in Brussels on Sunday afternoon to mark the 77th anniversary of the day on which the Palestinians lost territory to allow for the formation of the state of Isreal in 1948. Next Thursday (15 May) it will be 77 years since the event known in the Arab world as the “Nakba” took place. According to the police there were 20,000 people at Sunday afternoon’s demonstration. The organisers of the march said that there were 80,000.
Around 60 organisions, including the Belgian Palestinian Association, the Palestinian collective Beitna, the Union of Progressive Jews in Belgium (UPJB), the Christian and socialist trade unions, the human rights group Amnesty International and 11.11.11 were involved in the organisation of the demonstration.
The demonstrators called for a military embargo against Isreal and a suspension of the association agreement between the European Union and Israel. They also called on Belgium to ban trade with the Israeli colonists’ settlements on the West Bank.
The demonstration started at Brussels North Railway station at around 2pm. The demonstrators made their way along the western part of the Brussels Inner Ring Road to Brussels South Station, where they started to arrive at around 4:30pm.
