Winnipeggers take to the street in support of Nakba survivors

Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe | Manitoba Correspondent
Winnipeg
Around a hundred people gathered at a busy intersection in Winnipeg on May 15, 2018, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)

Around a hundred people gathered at a busy intersection in Winnipeg on May 15, 2018, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic. The Nakba refers to the dispossession of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Participants stood on the corners of a busy intersection wearing keffiyehs, a traditional scarf worn by Palestinians, and T-shirts commemorating the anniversary. They held signs with the names of villages that were destroyed when the State of Israel was created, and handed out leaflets about the conflict, chanting for an end to Israeli occupation and justice for all.

The event was sponsored by the Mennonite Church Manitoba Working Group on Palestine and Israel, the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba, Independent Jewish Voices Winnipeg, the Canada-Palestine Support Network-Winnipeg, Peace Alliance Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. Members of these groups and Nakba survivors spoke to those gathered.

See also “MC Canada working groups call for sanctions against Israel”
 

Around a hundred people gathered at a busy intersection in Winnipeg on May 15, 2018, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)

Protesters held signs with the names of villages that were destroyed when the State of Israel was created. (Photo by Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe)

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