At least a thousand Arabs mobbed the street in Jaffa (Yafo) Saturday to participate in Nakba Day protests over the establishment of the State of Israel.
Organizers said that many of the participants were not locals, but rather streamed into the city from across the country.
Demonstrators marched down Jaffa's main street, Sderot Yerushalayim and Rehov Yehuda HaYamit, blocking traffic and calling Israel's government “a terror government.”
They waved Palestinian Authority flags and signs reading “We have the right of return,” and “From Jaffa to Beirut – One people will not perish.”
Marchers underscored their insistence on the “right of return” for Arabs who fled pre-state Israel during the 1948 War of Independence and their descendants -- more than five million Arabs with foreign citizenship.
“We are stressing the need for the right of return and an end to the occupation,” Gabi Abad, head of the Arab Jaffa organization, explained.
Although marchers vowed to “continue the struggle, no matter the cost,” there was no violence, and no arrests were reported. No Arab Knesset members appeared at the event.