Israel/Palestine: Thousands march through Jerusalem to commemorate Al-Nakba

Thousands of Palestinians marched through Jerusalem to mark Al-Nakba ('the Catastrophe') on Friday. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and marched toward the Dome of the Rock, a shrine built in 619 CE with religious significance for Muslims, Jews and Christians. The annual rally marks 67 years since the exile of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians at the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. Demonstrators carried keys symbolising the houses Palestinians fled in 1948. Al-Nakba is commemorated on May 15, the date following the expiration of the British Mandate and the mass exile of an estimated 750,000 Palestinians as Zionist forces moved to occupy territories outside the previously agreed partition agreement. Israeli forces took over 78% of Palestine in the space of a few weeks, leaving only the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.