News - Middle East: Prominent pro-Palestine activists have taken to Twitter from different corners of the world to mark the Nakba Day, saying the “catastrophe” did not stop in 1948 as Palestinians continue to suffer various forms of oppression and apartheid to this day.

Israel proclaimed its illegal existence on May 15, 1948 at the expense of the forced expulsion of about 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. The day is known among Palestinians as the Day of Nakba, or catastrophe.

Former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that the Nakba has been maintained by Israel, and successive Israeli administrations have expropriated Palestinian-owned lands, expanded illegal settlements and severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement.

“The Nakba did not end in 1948 — Palestinians continue to resist a system of colonial dispossession and apartheid,” he tweeted.

He went on to voice his support for the establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

Francesca P. Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, also termed the Nakba as a "defining moment of Palestinians’ collective life, history and still ongoing dispossession."

She pointed out that Israel has entrenched its occupation, and keeps violating Palestinians’ freedom of expression.