Syria Today | Damascus demonstrates against 60th anniversary of Israeli occupation

Damascus demonstrates against 60th anniversary of Israeli occupation

Thousands of Palestinian refugees and Syrians protested in a government-backed demonstration on May 15 against the 60th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Students, workers and trade union activists waved posters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and banners denouncing the Israeli occupation of Palestine and Syria’s Golan Heights.

Syria hosts an estimated 460,000 Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee their homeland following the creation of Israel in 1948. When Israel occupied the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1963 Six-Day War some 500,000 displaced Syrian citizens were forced to move to Damascus.

“I am here to say I want to go back to my village and pray in the holy Aqsa Mosque,” Mohammad Kaddour, a 54-year-old Palestinian refugee who lives in Damascus’ Yarmouk Camp, said. “I want to die and be buried in Palestine,” he added, waving a Palestinian flag.