A shattered Middle East marks a gruesome anniversary. Global protests erupt as governments stay silent
October 6, 2024
PRO-PALESTINIAN marches erupted all over the world at the weekend, demanding a ceasefire ahead of Monday’s first anniversary of the Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
In Australia, thousands of people came out in support of Palestinians and the now Israeli-targeted Lebanese today in a number of cities, while a pro-Israel rally also took place in Melbourne.
Samantha Gazal, who came to the rally in Sydney, said she was there “because I can’t believe our government is giving impunity to a violent extremist nation and has done nothing.
“We’re watching the violence play out on livestream, and they’re doing nothing.”
In Melbourne, supporters of Israel held up posters showing Israeli hostages who are still missing.
“We feel like we didn’t do anything to deserve this,” said Jeremy Wenstein, one of the participants. “We’re just supporting our brothers and sisters who are fighting a war that they didn’t invite.”
At a rally in Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate, hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators marched up the Unter den Linden behind a banner that read “Against all anti-semitism.”
Today’s events followed the hundreds of thousands of protesters across the world who took to the streets on Saturday in support of the Palestinians.
At the 300,000-strong protest in central London, Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal said that he and other peace campaigners will keep organising marches until action against Israel is taken.
He said: “We need to be out on the streets in even bigger numbers to stop this carnage and stop Britain being drawn into it.”
Tess Yasser of the Palestinian Youth Movement said people were marching “as part of the international day of action that the Palestinian people have called for to demand a full arms embargo.
“We’re commemorating one year of genocide, one year of resistance.
“We’ve seen that the genocide has been a form of collective punishment on the people of Gaza who dare to resist a 17-year siege on them which has been inflicted by Israel.”
She added: “They will continue to resist until the genocide is over, and they see the full liberation of their lands and their people.”
The Metropolitan Police said they made just 17 arrests during the central London demonstration on Saturday.
According to the Met, one man was arrested for allegedly shouting support for Hezbollah and another on suspicion of wearing or displaying an article indicating support for Hamas, which is also a proscribed organisation, after he was allegedly spotted wearing a parachute.
It is a crime in Britain to belong to, express support, invite support for or arrange a meeting to back any proscribed organisation.
Proscription is the banning of an organisation based on an assessment that it commits or participates in, prepares for, promotes or encourages, or is otherwise concerned in terrorism, according to the Home Office.
Images of protesters holding placards that read “I love Hezbollah” have circulated online, and police said they are working to identify those involved.
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said the police have “our full support” should they take action against people carrying signs suggesting support for Hezbollah.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, he said: “Yesterday … there was a lot of peaceful protest, but there were people who were carrying signs as the one that you have just described.
“That is a criminal act, supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation such as Hezbollah is a criminal act.”
Responding to calls by the protesters for the British government to do more to secure a ceasefire in the Middle East, Mr Kyle told Ms Kuenssberg that calls for “actions that lead towards a restrained political solution based on a ceasefire” were “unanimous” among Britain’s allies.
Tory shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell claimed British recognition of Palestine too early could “look like a reward” for Hamas’s attack on southern Israel one year on.
Labour was formerly committed to immediate recognition of a Palestinian state should it be elected, but Keir Starmer dropped the promise following Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Mr Kyle insisted that the British government was “working in lockstep with our international allies.
“We can’t instruct Israel as a sovereign state to do anything, but as key allies we can advise them and the advice is very clear and it is unanimous from our international allies that we must exercise restraint.”
Turnout increased in Manchester on Saturday where a dozen pro-Palestine campaign groups have united to form Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine. Three pro-Palestine Jewish groups were among the marchers.
Norma Turner of Manchester PSC said: “The demonstration was much bigger yesterday than it has been for the last two or three weeks.
“There were a lot more younger people. It was very committed, very lively, very focussed.
“There were three or four different Jewish groups on the demonstration who were pro-Palestine and they were interviewed by Al-Jazeera TV.
“There was the national demonstration taking place in London as well and we had put on coaches, but people still came out in Manchester.”
Pro-Palestine demonstrators also took to the streets in Edinburgh and Dublin on Saturday.
This afternoon, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and other groups, were set to hold a memorial event in Hyde Park to mark the October 7 attack by Hamas and its allies during which 1,139 people were killed and some 250 were taken hostage.
Since then, Israel’s retaliation had killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza and at least 722 in the occupied West Bank. Israel has also bombed Yemen and Syria as well as its growing conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, where it’s engaged in an almost daily missile exchange.
Israel has wiped out a number of Hezbollah’s leaders, including its general secretary, Hassan Nasrallah, and detonated pager devices that left hundreds of Lebanese people dead.
Thousands of Lebanon’s civilians have been following Israel’s intense bombing on the capital Beirut and other towns and cities.
At least eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in direct clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, after Israel began what it describes as a limited ground incursion but what many others have slammed as an invasion.
The US, facing a backlash for its support for Israel, also saw a wave of protests in many states, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathering in New York’s Times Square on Saturday to call for a ceasefire.
And around 3,000 people attended Saturday’s international day of action within sight of the White House in Washington DC.
Amid a heavy police presence, the protesters gathered at Lafayette Park, chanting: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!”
Law student Annette Tunstall said she considered voting for the Democratic Party ticket in next month’s presidential election after Joe Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris became the candidate.
But she lost faith after pro-Palestinian voices were muzzled at the Democratic National Convention, she said.
“I really wanted to feel like I could vote for her in good conscience,” Ms Tunstall said. “I don’t think it would have taken a lot for thousands of pro-Palestinian people to hold their nose and vote for Harris.”
Italy’s capital had sought to ban any protests from taking place, with local authorities citing “security concerns.” However demonstrations went ahead, with police using tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators.
In the northern German city of Hamburg, about 950 people staged a peaceful demonstration with many waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags or chanting “Stop the Genocide,” the DPA news agency reported.
Several thousands of protesters gathered peacefully at Paris’s Place de la Republique in a show of solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Many were waving Palestinian flags while holding posters reading “stop the genocide,” “free Palestine,” and “hands off Lebanon.”
There were many other protests of support for the Palestinian people, including in Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and India.
In the Philippines, dozens of activists protested near the US embassy in Manila, where police prevented them from getting closer to the compound.
In Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, thousands marched to the heavily guarded US embassy on Sunday. Authorities blocked roads leading to the embassy with razor wire and concrete barriers as more than 1,000 police were deployed around the compound.
On Thursday this week, October 10, union branches are being urged to support a TUC-backed Workplace Day of Action for Palestine.
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