Across the globe this weekend, millions came out on the streets again, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Despite the vast numbers marching in our major cities, we still had enough of us left over to run smaller events in town and village squares.
Very few people like wars. Even fewer people are willing to tolerate the wanton killing of children. Whatever our views were six months ago, the overwhelming majority of the population of this country and of most other countries want our governments to apply themselves to ending the carnage in Gaza. There is a variety of views on the US/UK attack on Yemen, and I can only do a one-woman vox pop here but, most of the people I’ve spoken to have said ‘well they are trying to defend Gaza, and someone ought to’ or, ‘if our governments would defend Gaza, Yemen wouldn’t have to do this’. Others say they could understand the US and the UK trying to protect shipping, but why are they dropping bombs in Yemen? Many worry that our governments are angling for a dangerous escalation. No-one seems to think they’d doing what they should.
Countless people, many who are not normally politically engaged, listened to the testimonies in the International Court of Justice last week and again, this is only a one-woman vox pop but the most common opinion I’ve heard is that South Africa made a calm and well-evidenced case against Israel, and in reply, Israel had nothing but bile and whataboutery to offer.
In my town today, as is usual with actions in support of Palestine, most people who stopped to talk agreed with us. The one or two who came up to disagree said ‘I suppose you think it’s okay for Hamas to attack Israel, but not the other way around’, and we say actually no we don’t, we just want the killing to stop. In conversation, it quickly becomes clear that they don’t know the Palestinian side of the story at all, because our media and our politicians never tell it. They don’t know about the decades of brutal, illegal military occupation that led to this situation.
They don’t know that many of those defending Palestine are Jewish.
They don’t know what happens when Palestinians try to protest peacefully. (Click on some of the testimonies below for the horrible details).
It’s just governments who want Israel to carry on the way it does. Governments that sooner or later will be wanting our votes. Even the kind of governments that rig elections, even the kind that rule purely by bullying, can’t survive if a population is truly united against them – and the desperate desire to stop the terrible cruelty and destruction in Gaza is uniting peoples against governments all over the world.
We have to keep going until they realize that. Thank you to everyone who was out on the streets this weekend, and see you next time. The next march and rally for Gaza in Hastings is on the 21st January.
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Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 