A WELL attended 200-strong pro-Palestine Festival was held on Sunday to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Community Camp 4 Palestine (CC4Pal) opposite the United States embassy in South West London.
Over the last two years of uninterrupted picket the camp has organised events, made banners, run book and film clubs and participated in many actions in support of Palestine.
People were able to visit a variety of stalls including artworks, and a rally with speakers was held interspersed with poetry and music.
During the afternoon, the march went around the US embassy, with the demonstrators holding small coffins symbolic of the slaughter of children in Gaza.
A Palestinian man, Sami, talked about what he’d seen in Palestine, when Dr Rantisi, a long-time general practitioner for people in West Bank villages, was arrested by the so-called Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and put in custody. An older lady, Dunia, was arrested and had a heart attack the next day, but medical assistance was denied.
He said: ‘Israeli prisons are full of the best of Palestinians, such as teachers, who are held hostage. No-one can imagine how awful it is inside.
‘Women are denied sanitary protection when they have their periods. They cannot change their clothes. Pregnant women are abused, risking miscarriage. Children are held in solitary confinement.
‘Prisoners have to stand in one square foot of space, with their heads covered with foul cloth, hands tied behind their backs.
‘A friend from Ramallah was held in prison for 15 years, the last two years in solitary confinement.
‘Smotrich (Israeli defence ministry) tells Palestinians to leave or die. Ben Gvir (Minister of National Security) says he will order 40 Palestinians killed a day. We don’t know how many prisoners there are, as the Red Cross is not allowed to go in. As Dr Abu Safiya moved to see his lawyer, he was beaten and could hardly stand.
‘I can’t understand how they can call this a democracy. It is our job to speak up for the Palestinians, against this ethnic cleansing.’
Frank McGuiness, a barrister, said he supported clients in struggle. He made the point that the influence of the British Empire and US imperialism play an active part in the Gaza genocide. Zionism could not survive without their backing.
‘The British state has been in crisis since 2008. The Thatcherite laws have remained intact, and attacks have increased on the environmental movement. The British establishment is scared that we are powerful and the left is growing here and in the US. We must not let them off the hook.’
He said there had been ‘a long liberation movement in South Africa and Algeria – the latter lasting eight years from 1954 to 1962 and a million people died. They paid a huge price to get rid of French colonialism.
‘In South Africa, the British empire supported apartheid until the very last minute. Even now, white people still own the mines.’
He said: ‘In the Easter Rising, in Ireland 2016, James Connolly was the most principled. Connolly said he was a socialist first, and held that the international working class has no country.
‘Connolly said we shouldn’t die for a flag, but for the people. He warned that unless a socialist republic was set up, the English would take back control through their banks and businesses.’
He ended: ‘It’s going to take a popular front to win in Palestine.’
Dr Swee Ang, Orthopaedic surgeon and a founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) said that Israel had now banned her from visiting Palestine.
‘Everybody here believes in justice and humanity. We want that the Palestinian people and all oppressed people in the world should have the rights that we have.
‘We know that 2.1million Palestinians are forced into land just one third of the size of the Isle of Wight and that they live in tents, suffering hunger and plagued by rodents. More than a thousand people have been killed since the “ceasefire”. Hope is life. Palestinian children stand up outside destroyed homes saying: “We are not afraid”.
‘In the first intifada, Palestinians brought me to live with them and many people joined MAP. We cannot live without doing anything about it. We are a very strong organisation.
‘Thirty six hospitals in Gaza have been bombed. 230 medical students graduated at Al Shifa hospital on Christmas day. We know it will be difficult. We are part of the journey’.
Amber, from ‘Thanet for Palestine’ in Kent, talked about how the system tried to normalise the situation in Gaza. She called the pro-Palestine Camp ‘the light in the darkness … a bastion of solidarity of Art, talks, music and community.’
Dr Ranjeet Brar said: ‘Three years into a genocide we meet in these actions.’ He said he was introduced as a doctor but he didn’t know for how much longer.
He said the process of oppression in Palestine had been going on for a hundred years and reminded the audience of what Nelson Mandela said: ‘That none of us are free until Palestine is free.’
‘It’s called democracy, but none of you have the right of expression on policy of our government. The US embassy has its missiles on the roof, and across the globe and commit their terrors, as MI6 and CIA work together.
‘On 3rd January, the US kidnapped Nicholas Maduro, and stole the oil wealth of the Venezuelan people – a crime. Death to US imperialism. They say that all of Hamas and every Palestinian child is a terrorist. We reject that.
‘On 4th April, they began the 40 day war against Iran, starting with a triple tap on the Manab school, stating “we are going to take your oil wealth”.
‘My father wrote a book on the history of Zionism, saying it had the same ideas as fascism. I was arrested and taken before the GMC (General Medical Council) which said I did not have a right to say this.
‘Finally, the last time I came to speak, I was told that I couldn’t say “Israel does not have the right to exist.” US and British imperialism spread the tentacles of monopoly capitalism. It is the duty of every citizen to prevent genocide.
‘They tell us to adopt the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-semitism.
‘Their pretext is that there is only one holocaust. We are to forget the Indian massacre, colonialism itself, the war on the Congo that has killed 10 million people, the blood shed for minerals, the cash laundered through the city of London.
‘No genocidal state has the right to exist, whether in South Africa or Israel.
‘My bail has run out. I am officially allowed to speak outside the US embassy. I will be taking my trust to court. The IHRA definitions should go, so that people can wear their badges and express solidarity with the oppressed.
‘Israel is a project of the US and Western Europe including the UK – Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli has enlisted far-right activist Tommy Robinson to appear in a Likud campaign video, urging party members to vote for him.
‘The Israeli minister went on to say: “I will continue to strengthen Israel’s strategic ties with the European right and European street, such as Tommy Robinson, who leads a movement of millions of British patriots – they are the hope of Europe, the hope of the West”.’
The Camp continued with refreshments and further speeches. The chairwoman, Aisha, allowed Dr Anna Athow, to invite people to join the lobby of the Trade Union Congress in Brighton on Sunday 13 September, calling for the TUC to organise general strike action to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
