RAMALLAH, West Bank: Marking the anniversary of the 1967 war on Tuesday June 5 that reshaped the Middle East in just six days, Palestinians and peace activists rallied against four decades of Israeli occupation.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said the creation of a Palestinian state would expunge the memory of the crushing Arab defeat in the war that saw Israel wipe out three Arab armies and conquer vast swathes of territory.

"Despite all the difficulties ... our revolt was equal to this defeat, the memory of which we hope will be erased by ending the occupation of Arab and Palestinian territory and by establishing our independent state."

In 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Gaza Strip and Sinai peninsula from Egypt -- an area more than three times bigger than the state of Israel at the time.

Marking the war on Tuesday, Palestinians staged a main rally in Ramallah, and further north in Nablus, where dozens marched toward an Israeli checkpoint.

In the flashpoint city of Hebron, hundreds of Israeli peace activists protested the continuing expansion of settlements in the Golan, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem, today home to nearly half a million settlers.

In a rally in the Anata neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, speakers warned Israel that it will not have security until the occupation is ended and a Palestinian state created.

During a simultaneous rally in Tel Aviv, organisers erected a duplicate of a checkpoint to bring home to Israelis the "reality" of the West Bank, which is dotted by more than 500 such roadblocks, impeding freedom of movement and feeding resentment.

"We have to bring the idea to the Israeli public that this occupation which has gone on for forty years must end," said Susan Lourenco, one of the organisers.