Thousands of Arab Israelis rallied near the northern city of Haifa in a protest on the 70th anniversary of Israeli statehood, seen by Palestinians as a catastrophe, or Nakba in Arabic.
Under the slogan “Your Independence Day is the day of our Nakba,” they gathered in the town of Atlit, about 12 kilometres (seven miles) south of Haifa.
Palestinians say the 174 residents of an Arab village at the site were forced out by Israel in the war that accompanied its foundation in 1948, leaving only an Islamic cemetery.
An Israeli town of the same name now stands there.
Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and called for the right of refugees to return to the homes that their families fled or were expelled from in 1948.
Source: TRT World
