UP TO ten thousand people demonstrated on Friday evening in front of the Israeli embassy in London to protest against Israel’s continued military assault on Gaza.
The turnout was so massive that police tried to prevent people from joining the protest, but protesters surged through the police barriersand completely blocked off Kensington High Street.
The protest was organised by a coalition of groups, and was the second mass demonstration in London in less than a week demanding an end to Israel’s on-going crimes in Palestine.
The protest vastly exceeded the organisers’ expectations. Police told protesters trying to reach the demonstration that nobody could enter for ‘health and safety’ reasons.
At the demonstration, Nazanih Sepehri told News Line: ‘When genocide is happening we must protest, especially in this home of imperialism.
‘Israel is an an extension of the colonial logic.
‘I’m here to oppose the biased reports from the western media and to show Israel that we are watching them and can see what they are doing.
‘The British government should break off all diplomatic relations with Israel and boycott all Israeli goods.’
A banner made by King’s College Action for Palestine had the names of 98 of those Palestinians killed by the Israeli state at that time.
They said: ‘We stand in solidarity with Palestinian people and against the collective punishment of the people of Gaza by the Israeli state.
‘We chose to write the names of those killed so that they will not be turned into statistics. We ask the question “Who are the real terrorists?” Israel or the people of Gaza who are living in the world’s largest open air prison. When will the world condemn the crimes of Israel?’
A young student from Iran said, ‘This is not an issue for Arabs or Muslims but is a humanitarian crisis of genocide. The world cannot continue to use selective sympathy towards victims of the West and remain indifferent towards killings in the East.’
A Palestinian student, Hedaia Ghannam, was moved by the death of a child in Gaza and wrote ‘and only in Gaza his one-year daughter whom he had after three years marriage was killed . . . I will give her my blood, everything, but let these children live please.’
Sixteen-year-old Jenica Salvador came with her friends from West Drayton and drew their own posters in support of the Palestinian people.
She said: ‘We want everyone to be aware of what is happening in Palestine because we know that no-one thinks that apartheid is right. The support for the Palestinians is growing and is spreading rapidly.’
Sheraz Hussein from Pakistan said: ‘I’m here to oppose the destruction of people’s homes and the killing of whole families, while we are living here peacefully – Israel should be completely boycotted.’
MP George Galloway addressed the demonstration ‘to curse the oppression and injustice and murder that is taking place in Palestine today.
‘The British government has the blood of the more than 100 Palestinians killed just this week, more than 25 of them children. The British government has that blood on their hands. I want to make a wider point. The entire British political class has that blood on its hands.
‘Where is Ed Miliband? Whilst all this murder is going on, not a single word of condemnation has come from him.’
He added: ‘The British media presents in such a lying and distorted way what is happening. Israelis are killed, Palestinians merely die. Israel is said to be bombing militants but we know the truth.
‘Of all the British media the one that is most intolerable to me is the Bush and Blair media formally known as the BBC.’
