‘FROM the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!’ more than 10,000 Al Quds Day marchers chanted as they proceeded from Marble Arch, down Oxford Street in central London to the BBC HQ in Portland Place on Sunday.
As the march was assembling in Marble Arch, people spoke to News Line.
Zehra Naqri, a bank worker from Tooting, said: I’m here to support my people on Palestine. It is my duty to stand up for them. There needs to be a lockdown, a general strike until victory.’
Civil servant and PCS union member Hussein Abbott, from Manchester, said: ‘The genocide in Palestine must be stopped and the British trade unions have to take action. The workers have to unite and send a clear message – no more arms to Israel and more trade with Israel.’
Hannah Woodhouse, an artist from south London, who was carrying a placard, saying ‘Bloody BBC’, said: ‘I made this placard, because the BBC has an incredible bias. It’s outrageous that it has withdrawn and now banned the programme about children surviving genocide in Gaza. We must defeat the censorship of the truth.
‘Israel just committed the largest child massacre in its history. 200 Palestinian children slaughtered in a single day with direct support of the US and UK and zero outrage from western media. What stage of barbarism is this?’
Eleanor Thorn, a World Music concert organiser from Rotherhythe in South East London, said: ‘I’ve been marching as much as possible ever since Suella, Braverman called them “hate marches”. They aren’t hate marches, they are quite the opposite.
‘This is the biggest topic of the moment, this is the loudest voice since 1948, and we owe it to all the people living under the rubble and under the canvas and all the people picking up the scraps of body parts and all the people imprisoned for decades, not just to march, but to end the genocide.
‘Every time we think it can’t get any worse, it does get worse, We have to win our aims.’
Syed Rizby, a retail worker from Harrow, said: ‘I’m just here because the bombing must end now. There has to be action to stop the arms trade with Israel. It’s terrible and it must stop.’
There were hundreds of placards and banners on the march and the loud and lively delegation behind the Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists banner kept up constant chants of ‘Stop Arming Israel, Kick Starmer Out!’ and ‘Victory to Palestine, General Strike Now!’
The leading banner said: ‘Al Quds Day – a universal day to support the oppressed against the oppressor’. There were many Orthodox Jews marching behind a banner stating: ‘Jews Worldwide Condemn Unending Israeli Brutality!’
A placard said: ‘Genocide, War Crimes, Starvation, Blocking all Aid. But MPs still support Israel. Why?’ Another said: ‘International institutions as a colonial tool are failing Gaza.’
A large banner declared: ‘Victory to the Resistance!’ and another ‘Time to End Misrepresentation Campaign’. Placards read: ‘Freedom for Palestine! Hands off Al Aqsa! Boycott Apartheid! Bloody BBC! Israel kills 3 buses of kids daily. Our taxes fund it!’
One placard declared: ‘BBC reporting on Genocide in Gaza’ with a picture of the ‘three wise monkeys’ underneath, with them saying ‘Say No Genocide. See No Genocide. Hear No Genocide.’
The large delegation of Orthodox Jews on the march, chanted: ‘Down, down with the Zionist enemy!’ Other chants on the march included: ‘Hands off Gaza! Hands off Yemen! Hands off Palestine! Boycott Disney!’ (after Disney reportedly pledged to donate $2 million to support Israel).
At the rally outside the BBC, the first speaker was Sheikh Said Mossam, who said: ‘The propaganda machine cannot cover up and hide Zionist crimes. Our future is bright and in our hands. Let’s rise together against the oppression.’
Mick Napier, from the Scottish Solidarity Campaign, said: ‘Never fall for the Zionist garbage that “Jews support Israel”. Trump is an ethnic cleanser and supporter of mass murder. Starmer says Israel has the right to deny water to the people of Gaza. We are citizens of a genocide enabler.
‘We say to our friends in Yemen “We support you. We support you”. The USA is going to meet defeat in Yemen and Lebanon. Starmer is seeking to crush something we love here in the UK – the NHS. And he will fail. The people of the UK are fighting and are going to win and so are the people of Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen. They are all going to win.’
Stephen Sizer, a CofE priest who has been banned from preaching in church for supporting Palestine, told the rally: ‘Those church leaders who fail to condemn genocide are false prophets. Support the divestment campaign. We are strong and making a difference. Just look at the impact one salute from Mr Musk has had on the fortunes of Tesla.’
Sukaina Rajwani told the rally: ‘My daughter, Fatema Zainab was arrested in August 2024 in Filton, Bristol accused of damaging Elbit Systems, the makers of killer quadcopter drones.
‘She protested week after week against the genocide in Palestine and the government ignored her.
‘Sometimes our children surprise us. She has been held for eight months as a political prisoner. I am so proud of my daughter Fatema Zainab.
‘Elbit Systems supplies 85% of UK arms to Israel. They advertise it as ‘battle tested”. They are breaking international law. My daughter was upholding international law.
‘Please come to the Old Bailey on Thursday 27th March and stand in solidarity to defend the Filton 18. As Britain slips into a police state, this is a fight we must win.’
Dave Cannon, member of the GMB union, said: ‘The Jewish Network for Palestine is a vital voice to defy the lies. In 1948 hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed, many thousands killed, 750,000 Palestinians lost their homes.
‘What followed was 80 years of slow burn genocide. Israel is a terror state. We are outside the BBC today which covers it all up. Not only is Israel a terror state but the UK is a terror state.
‘It is really vital we have Jewish voices standing up for truth here with us. There’s nothing Jewish about genocide. We say it loud and clear – Judaism YES! Zionism NO!’
Massoud Shadjareh, Chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: ‘This is the law of the jungle and we won’t accept it. The BBC cannot be allowed to support genocide in our name. The UK government cannot be allowed to finance genocide.’
Batool Subeiti, a human rights activist from the Palestinian Return Centre, told the rally: ‘Al Quds Day was launched by Imam Khomeini in Iran in 1979 and was called to end the biggest shame of humanity.
‘The crux of it is to challenge the very existence of Israel. Al Quds Day centralised the Palestinian cause and rejects all forms of Israeli normalisation.’
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Swee Ang said: ‘It is an honour to speak here today. Palestine has suffered 76 years. I have so many painful messages from friends. We don’t have arms but we have our voices and we must speak. The Palestinians have written their story in blood and we must tell their story and speak up. Secondly, we must divest, sanction, boycott.’
Dr Swee was interrupted by the chairman who told the rally that the police had just warned that the rally must end immediately or a ‘Section 14’ would be issued, ordering immediate dispersal. ‘They are serving a section 14 as we speak now,’ the chairman said.
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