(15 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon – 15 May 2024
1. Various of students marching down streets towards British embassy holding Palestinian flags chanting slogans
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdulrahman Kassab, student protester:
“The Balfour Declaration (which promised the creation of a Jewish homeland) is a promise of ownership to those who don’t deserve it. It led to the catastrophe that happened 67 years ago in 1948. We came today to say that God willing this commemoration will eventually be the upcoming day of return. We came from all universities of Lebanon, walking from the American University of Beirut to the British embassy, which gave that promise that will fail God willing. We gathered to say that we are with the Palestinian people until the final breath until the land is freed and returned to its owners."
3. Various of students marching towards British embassy holding Palestinian flags
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Amal Musallam, student protester:
"We, as students, are participating in the campaign ‘Students Against the Occupation’ because we are supporting the resilience of our people in Gaza and conveying a clear message to them that we are with them and will not surrender. This is not the first demonstration we have participated in, and it certainly won’t be the last."
5. Wide of march
6. Various of students protesting in front of British embassy
STORYLINE:
Dozens of students carrying Palestinian flags protested outside the American University of Beirut Wednesday to mark the day Israel was created.
Palestinians across the Middle East were marking the anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel with protests and other events at a time of mounting concern over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” refers to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what today is Israel before and during the war surrounding its creation in 1948.
More than twice that number have been displaced within Gaza since the start of the latest war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
U.N. agencies say 550,000 people, nearly a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, have been newly displaced in the last week, as Israeli forces have moved into parts of the southern city of Rafah, along the border with Egypt, and reinvaded districts of northern Gaza.
The refugees and their descendants number some 6 million and live in built-up refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In Gaza, they are the majority of the population, with most families having been pushed out of what is now central and southern Israel.
“We came today to say that, God willing, this commemoration will eventually be the upcoming day of return. We came from all the universities of Lebanon, walking from the American University of Beirut to the British embassy," said Abdulrahman Kassab, a student participating in the protest.
Israel rejects what the Palestinians say is their right of return, because it would likely result in a Palestinian majority within Israel’s borders.
The latest war began with Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel, through some of the same areas where Palestinians fled from their villages 75 years earlier.
Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage.
Israel responded with one of the heaviest military onslaughts in recent history, obliterating entire neighbourhoods in Gaza and forcing some 80% of the population to flee their homes.
AP video by Dadi Tawil
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