Palestine demonstration

One of the platform speakers claimed there were 20 000. It looked to me that there were 4-5000. You can see from the photos that much of Trafalgar Square was empty and that the weather was miserable. The demo was sponsored by about 20 organisations from the RMT to Pax Christi and yet it lacked…

Liam

May 20, 2006

1–2 minutes

One of the platform speakers claimed there were 20 000. It looked to me that there were 4-5000. You can see from the photos that much of Trafalgar Square was empty and that the weather was miserable.

The demo was sponsored by about 20 organisations from the RMT to Pax Christi and yet it lacked the spirit of the Mayday march or the enthusiasm of the Chávez visit. It seems odd to me that the solidarity movement for Palestine is so much weaker than the Anti Apartheid movement was. If anything lots more British socialists have visited Palestine and the issues are just as stark. Does anyone out there have any ideas why this might be so?

Palestine under siege

Socialist Resistance forum
Roland Rance (Jews Against Zionism)
Tamir Nasrallah (eye-witness from Palestine)

Wednesday 14 June, 7.30

Indian YMCA, Fitzroy Square
Warren St tube

2 responses to “Palestine demonstration”

twp

May 20, 2006 at 7:10 pm

If you think about it, the struggle againt Apartheid was more straight forward for a large majority of the population of Britain. It was safer and less messy than the Middle East is today – at least as far as supporting a cause was concerned. The movement also gained momentum in the wake of a lot of racial tension in Britain which brought new and largely positive relations between black and white in this country. I think the issue of race was the main centre of discussion then while the current debate around Palestine and Israel largely revolves around the issues of terrorism and suicide bombings today. The idea of a Palestinian national identity gets lost and is rarely talked about outside of those already familiar with the cause.Further, we’re still in the stage of a “tension” in Britain with regards to Islam and the issues mentioned above. I am not sure the movement for Palestine will gain support until some of those issues are resolved. It is still too “messy” for the average Britain to give their support to and possibly even more so since the suicide bombings in Britain last summer.

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Anonymous

May 22, 2006 at 8:52 am

Perhaps the reason also has to do with the fact that the struggle against apartheid was unassailably moral, whereas the ‘struggle’ in the Middle East involves two sides who have both compromised themselves morally, particularly the side who deliberately target civilians for death, and celebrate those deaths in museums of murder.It is difficult even for those of us who believe in social justice to come out in support of a cause now spearheaded by an islamist murder squad masquerading as a government.It is also morally repulsive for anyone who studies history with an impartial eye to come out in support of the Palestinian Authority, whose television and educational material routinely demonize Jews as the sons of pigs and apes, the enemies of God, etc. Anyone who reads Qu’ran and the Sunnah and can still conclude that the Jewish people are merely participants in a struggle over real estate, they’re facing up to reality.In short, there is no comparison in my view, between the moral struggle against Apartheid, and the ‘struggle’ against the state of Israel.

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