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MORE than 100,000 workers, students and youth marched from Parliament Square from Downing Street in Whitehall to the American Embassy in Battersea on Saturday demanding action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
There were thousands of Palestinian flags, placards and banners, declaring boycott Israel, divest now, ceasefire now, and there were trade union banners from the UCU, CWU, Unison, NEU, RMT and others and there was loud chanting of ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free!’
Constant chants of: ‘General strike for Palestine – General strike now! and 1,2,3,4 Occupation no more! 5,6,7,8 Israel is a terrorist state!’ were kept up by the loud and lively delegation behind the Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists banner.
Demonstrators spoke to News Line as the march was assembling in Whitehall.
Miriam from east London was with a large group of supporters of Palestine holding a washing line, on which they were hanging children’s and infants’ clothes.
She said: ‘The reason we brought these clothes is to represent the children who have been disproportionately murdered in Gaza and in Lebanon.
‘I’ve been coming to the demonstrations since October last year at the start of the genocide. I’m Lebanese and my family are still there. It feels unreal – I am traumatised.’
Diana, from Russia and Sharma, from Bangladesh are 6th form school students in Rochester, Kent.
Diana said: ‘The fact is, the best way to stop the violence is to stop arms for Israel. The UK is selling Israel arms for profit and this must stop.’
Sharma said: ‘The trade unions and students unions must strike. Only united can the system be changed. I’ve been on marches in Bangladesh because our government supports Palestine, but this is the first one I’ve been on in Britain.’
Fauziya Kawsar, a London accountant, said: ‘The genocide has to be stopped. We are witnessing it first hand and we have got to stand up for the victims.
‘When they suspended 15% of arms to Israel the Israeli government went mad. Good! Now 100% must be banned. The 15% was like a sop from Starmer to try take the heat off him. But Israel’s anger shows how effective it is. Now we must ban all relations with Israel.’
Andrew Rouse, an NHS doctor from Birmingham, said: ‘We’ve got to stop the slaughter, which has been going on for 75 years in Palestine.
‘First of all as a country we have to face what has been happening and stop following the USA. It is within our power to stop 100% of Britain’s arms exports to Israel and this must be done.
‘I’ve been to Palestine twice. I’ve been to Gaza and the West Bank when I was younger, to protest against the war in 2004 and in 2007 and I was beaten up by the Israeli Border Patrol.’
Dr Rouse added: ‘I’m an NHS worker and a patient and it’s the policy of the government in this country to do away with the NHS. I support the call for a general strike to defend Palestine and the NHS.’
Jehan carrying the ‘BDS Boycott Israel!’ banner, told News Line: ‘People want to boycott Israel and it has to be fought for by the unions. The whole country must demand that Britain stops assisting with Israel’s genocide.
‘Just this week, Barclays have divested all of their shares from Elbit Systems, the arms manufacturers in Britain which supplies Israel. This is a massive victory!
‘But we must do so much more. The US government must be stopped from selling arms to Israel and that is going to require a massive change of government policy, but it’s got to happen now.’
The demonstration set off from Downing Street at 1pm, marching past Parliament, along the Embankment, across Vauxhall Bridge past the USA Embassy, where there were loud chants of: ‘Stop arming Israel! Stop supporting genocide!’ and on to a rally outside Battersea Power Station.
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