Students, professors and supporters from SOAS University held a Nakba Day rally through the streets of central London yesterday to mark 76 years since Palestinians were forced out of their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel.

The march disrupted traffic on major roads in the city, including shopping hot spots Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street.
The demonstrators called on SOAS to disclose full details of the university’s investments in Israeli companies which are complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza, calling on the education institution to divest from such bodies and to terminate the university’s banking and lending arrangement with Barclays bank.
They also demand their university boycott Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights.
The rally was called for by SOAS Liberated Zone for Gaza and has been endorsed by 13 university societies.
Similar rallies were being held at the University College London (UCL) and Queen Mary’s University London (QMUL).