One hundred thousand people took part in the 33rd National March for Palestine on Saturday and the marchers were the usual wonderful mix of ages, ethnicity and faith.
Arriving for the march in the rain, we were all very aware that our discomfort was as nothing compared with the suffering of those living in flooded tents with sodden mattresses, now that winter has arrived in Gaza.
The march started chaotically due to the police having changed our starting point at the last minute and the train and tube disruption on the day only added to the confusion. Many of our own supporters spent hours trying to join us, some resorting to long journeys by Uber and some only arriving in time for the well-deserved after-march drinks and ‘decompress’ in a local cafe!
The pro-Israel counter-protestors had decided not to assemble this time as they object to being ‘kettled’ in a side street as they see it.
The speeches were as powerful as ever and below we name most of the speakers and paraphrase or condense some of their memorable quotes. So many speakers called out the current ceasefire as anything but a ceasing of fire.
Peter Oborne – journalist & author As a journalist I cannot stand here today without honouring those brave journalists who report daily from Gaza, compared with those many Western journalists in their comfortable jobs who remain silent.
Denise Gough – Actor, recently returned from the West Bank A ceasefire is not liberation.
The cruelty of Israel and the Zionist entity is something I will never forget.
Belle Ribeiro-Addy – Labour MP Genocide is not rhetoric – it’s a legal definition
Mary Lou McDonald – President Sinn Fein A ceasefire that doesn’t protect civilians is not peace. The situation in Palestine now as before is just the endless management of injustice.
Anas Altikriti – Muslim Assoc of Great Britain Complicity is silence dressed as legality. Justice is non-negotiable.
Ismail Patel – Friends of Al-Aqsa The Trump Plan as confirmed by the UN is not a plan for freedom – it’s a plan for occupation.
Jerome Legavre – French politician France, the UK and other governments are prepared to send troops to support the Trump Plan, this international initiative, and so are complicit in this deception.
Marc Botenga – MEP Workers Party of Belgium There are two Europes. One is the Europe of the establishment & governments. The other is the Europe we marchers represent, a Europe of liberation, not occupation.
Chris Nineham – Stop the War The ceasefire is a lie.
Khalid Abdullah – British Actor Khalid gave an exciting announcement of a Palestinian song to be released on December 12th that we must all try to get to the Christmas Number One!
It’s called: LULLABY, a song of love, resistance, defiance and homeland, issued by togetherforpalestine.org performed by an amazing group of contributing artists including Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Nai Barghouti, Lana Lubany, & Neneh Cherry.
Khalid entreated us all to pre-order and BUY (not stream!) the song for £2 on this site. One hundred thousand purchases will ensure it gets the top slot in the charts and will ensure that the world will remember Palestine at Christmas, and will know that Bethlehem is in Palestine.
An uplifting end to the speeches on yet another day when we continued to stand for Gaza, the West Bank and all of the OPT, even though our media has dropped Gaza and the fake ceasefire off the news agenda.