‘STOP starving Gaza!’ demanded over 7,000 workers and youth at a mass demonstration outside Downing Street last Friday evening.
The ‘emergency protest’ was called by the Palestine Coalition group.
It started with a demonstration by the Foreign Office before moving to opposite Downing Street.
As asked, demonstrators banged pots and pans to emphasise the man-made starvation in Gaza and killings at the US-Israel Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution centres.
The protest numbers swelled to block the whole of Whitehall.
Speaking outside the gates of Downing Street Palestine Solidarity director Ben Jamal condemned the Starmer government’s continued supply of arms to Israel and called out David Lammy as a hypocrite.
News Line spoke to Sam Browne from Walthamstow, who said: ‘I can’t bear to see families in Palestine being starved while our government is providing arms to Israel.
‘We need this government out, thats why we need a general strike.’
Jae Simpson joined the protest with her friends and said: ‘Kids are starving in a man-made famine.
‘Killing families is not self defence.
‘I don’t support anything this government is doing.
‘Innocent people are being killed and the West is responsible, it is only for selfish gain.
‘All the funds from the UK to support Israel are keeping working class people here in poverty.’
Another on the protest, Rosie Carlile said: ‘It’s easy to sit at a screen and interact, but its dangerous because social media doesn’t actually change anything.
‘Coming out onto the streets, even though its only pots and pans, gives a real sense of the energy of support for Palestine.
‘We can see the strength of our power in numbers.’
- More than a third of MPs have signed a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for the UK to recognise a Palestinian state.
Some 220 MPs from nine political parties have backed the call, more than half of them Labour, arguing that UK recognition would send a ‘powerful’ message and a vital step toward a two-state solution.
The letter piles pressure on the UK PM after France committed to recognising a Palestinian statehood within months.
In an earlier statement after an emergency phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Starmer said recognising Palestinian statehood would have to be part of a ‘wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution’.
In his statement, Starmer said: ‘Alongside our closest allies, I am working on a pathway to peace in the region, focused on the practical solutions that will make a real difference to the lives of those that are suffering in this war.
‘That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace.
‘Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that.
‘But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.’
- The UK government’s ban on Palestine Action is a ‘disturbing’ misuse of counter-terrorism legislation, the United Nations’ human rights chief has warned.
Volker Turk urged the government to lift the ban on the group, calling it ‘disproportionate and unnecessary’.
Earlier this month, Palestine Action was proscribed by the UK Government under the Terrorism Act 2000 after activists claimed responsibility for spraying two military aircraft with red paint causing an estimated £7m worth of damage.
The decision is currently being challenged in the High Court with a judgment due at the end of the month.
