LONDON — A national march in London commemorated the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, the displacement of at least 700,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. Sara Husseini, director of the British Palestinian Committee, said that British Palestinians feel unable to speak openly about Israel's war on Gaza.

Husseini said that some British Palestinians were afraid to wear Palestinian symbols at work or display Arabic jewellery and keffiyehs in public. She said there were many documented reports of Palestinians and allies being silenced or punished for wearing Palestinian symbols, watermelon pins, or speaking about the genocide. She said many Palestinians felt they were being treated not as victims of mass suffering but as suspects whose grief had become politicised.

"Cruelty is the word I would use, particularly for colleagues who are from Gaza or have family there, knowing these atrocities are being inflicted on their loved ones day in, day out," she said. "And then being effectively told: not only are we not going to acknowledge that this is happening to you, we're going to disbelieve you, interrogate you, stop you from speaking about it, and if you do speak, we're going to paint you as the problem."

Some Jewish groups and politicians have called on ministers and police to impose tighter restrictions on pro-Palestinian marches in Britain. Husseini said the misrepresentation of the protests as hate marches was intended to undermine the protesters and distract from the government's complicity in these crimes. She said marchers walk alongside people of all faiths and communities, including 13 organised Jewish blocs, in protesting against the killing of children, the bombing of a captive population, and the forced starvation of human beings. She attended the protests with her two young children.

Husseini said framing the conflict as Muslims against Jews was part of stirring up communal tensions and a wider culture-wars mentality, and that it was part of a broader attempt to erase and invisibilise Palestinians. "It goes hand in hand with attempts to dehumanise Palestinians, and dehumanisation is a prerequisite for genocide," she said.

Police will monitor both the Nakba Day pro-Palestine march and the Unite the Kingdom march organized by Tommy Robinson. Prime Minister Keir Starmer described Robinson and others organizing the rally in London as individuals with long records of violence and extremism.