Militant groups gathered at Welcome Rotunda in Quezon City on May 15 to mark the 78th anniversary of the Al Nakba and demand the liberation of Palestine from the violent occupation of Zionist Israel. The Al Nakba (The Catastrophe) took place on May 15, 1948, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled from their land to pave the way for the establishment of the state of “Israel.”

The Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association (PPFA) led the action. Protesters carried Palestinian flags and placards reading “Salam Palestine Solidarity from the Philippines.” The protest also featured various forms of resistance, including a dog fitted with a sign reading “Resistance Until Return” and the kicking and burning of an effigy of Zionist state leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s head. PPFA in its statement said the action aimed to convey that the solidarity of the Filipino people with the Palestinian struggle will never break.

“The Nakba is not only a history of expulsion in 1948; it is an ongoing violence and genocide that Palestinians continue to suffer today at the hands of the Zionist regime,” a PPFA representative said. “We stand with their call for the right to return to their own land.”

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) supported the activity. In its official statement, the alliance stressed the severe crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, particularly the rising number of political prisoners and the use of the “yellow line”—a Zionist military instrument that seizes nearly 60% of agricultural land in Gaza to further starve and tighten control over its people.

“The League stands in full and unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian people in commemorating the genocidal legacy of the Nakba,” ILPS stated. “The expansion of this global movement proves the unbreakable determination of Palestinians against the fascist colonial US-Zionist regime.”

The program ended with a call from progressive sectors in the Philippines to end American imperialism, which primarily funds and supplies weapons for the genocide in Palestine and the broader violence in the Middle East.