London (AFP) – Thousands of people on Saturday joined pro-Palestinian marches in London, Berlin and Dublin calling for an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza, […].
Several thousand marchers in London carried placards reading “End the genocide” and “Free Palestine” as they made their way along the route near the British parliament.
“We are here today to mark three years of the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” Aimee Shalan, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told AFP.
Western sanctions over settler violence did not go far enough, she said, calling for “full sanctions on Israel”.
A ceasefire began a year ago and although Israel has reduced its level of attacks it has kept striking Gaza on a near-daily basis.
Strikes have killed some 1,450 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
London police said they had arrested 20 people including a man and a woman with placards supporting the organisation Palestine Action, banned under UK law.
Recent graduate Hibo Hassan, 23, said she was there to show her solidarity.
“Although it is happening in the Middle East, it affects us here now,” she said.
“It’s extremely dystopian and that is something we should be all scared about,” she added.
Another protester, a 32-year-old Kosovar immigrant who gave his name as Kobe, said his own experience of war made him want to “stand up today and not let history repeat” itself.
A small counter-demonstration was organised by Stop The Hate UK, a Jewish-led, pro-Israel campaign group.
Ahead of the protest, organised by the Palestine Coalition, London’s Metropolitan Police said it would be using powers under public order legislation to require anyone wearing a face covering to hide their identity to remove it.
“We will take a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and other offending,” said senior Met officer Carl Galvin.
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