Heavy rain did not deter about 1000 people from rallying at Sydney Town Hall, on Gadigal Country, on May 15, to mark 77 years of Nakba and demand an end to Israel鈥檚 genocide in Gaza.
It was one of many rallies held across the country on the day in 1948when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their land by the new state of Israel.
Since then, Israel has continued to expand, particularly during the 1967 war when it occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Syria鈥檚 Golan Heights.
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Palestinian student Raneem Emad, whose grandparents were victims of the Nakba, told the rally that Israel was 鈥渃reated on and continues to develop on the bones of Palestinians鈥.
鈥淪eventy-seven years since the Nakba 鈥 we have watched the evolution of the Israeli occupation upon the bodies and the blood of more and more Palestinian children鈥
鈥淚t is hard not to feel like every day is another Nakba.鈥
Emad spoke about the experience of constantly losing friends and family members in Gaza to Israel鈥檚 genocide.
A survivor of the Nakba told the rally: 鈥淧alestine is our land, our sky, it is our dream which will never die.
鈥淵our voices tonight will touch the bleeding hearts of the children of Gaza. Your solidarity with Palestinians will open a new horizon for hope and peace for all the Palestinian people.鈥
Palestine Action Group organiser Amal Nasser, who emceed the rally, asked: 鈥淎s a national liberation struggle, what are we going to do to stop the famine and stop the genocide?鈥
She said Australians had rejected Donald Trump-style politics in the recent federal election, but Anthony Albanese鈥檚 Labor government has not opposed Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Greens Newtown MP Jenny Leong read a statement from new Australian Greens leader Larissa Waters, in which she pledged to 鈥渃ontinue to work for a free Palestine鈥.
Protesters then marched through the CBD to Pitt Street Mall where a Palestinian-Australian surgeon from the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association, who spent time working in hospitals in Gaza during the genocide, addressed the crowd.
鈥淚t has been 11 months since I first stepped foot in Gaza and it is difficult to process how that once fertile and thriving land, in which Palestinians had dreams and hopes, is currently being bombed and people murdered and erased before our very eyes as we helplessly watch them being forcibly starved,鈥 she said.
鈥淚srael has been allowed to carry out these deliberately gruesome and heinous acts of violence with complete impunity while the world watches on.
鈥淚 feel anger at the perpetrators of this genocide, but also at those who deny it is even occurring and, even worse, at those who manufacture consent and perpetrate a false narrative to help ethnically cleanse the Palestinians.鈥
She said she felt helpless watching as every hospital in Gaza is bombed, and healthcare workers are tortured and killed.
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