On October 5, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the association that has been organizing important pro-Palestinian marches in London for a year, once again called for demonstrations in the heart of the British capital to “the end of the intervention in Lebanon”, “the cessation of arms exports to Israel” or the “Liberation of Palestine”. Several tens of thousands of people responded again: Greater London Police made seventeen arrests.
In its resilience and scale, the British mobilization for the Palestinians is unique in Europe. Since the beginning of the Israeli response to the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, tens of thousands of people have gathered every two to three weeks between Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, in concentrations authorized by the authorities and broadly pacifist. ; Some arrests for disorderly conduct or suspicion of anti-Semitic comments occur occasionally, such as on September 7 (eight people were arrested) or in early July (four protesters were arrested).
“There have not been marches of this magnitude since the suffrage movement [pour le droit des femmes, au début du XXe siècle] »says Ben Jamal, with the keffiyeh around his neck, the president of the PSC. At 61 years old, this son of a Palestinian Anglican pastor comes from a family that had to flee Jerusalem in 1948, when the State of Israel was created, like several hundred thousand people.
Determined protesters
The demonstrations have lost a bit of intensity in recent months, but those who march (retirees, students, families with children and representatives of the Muslim community) remain determined, brandishing the same signs (“Free Palestine”, “Cease fire now” – “cease fire now”) or chant the slogan “From the river to the sea” (“from the river to the sea”, that is, between the Jordan and the Mediterranean) – considered offensive by many Jews, who see it as the eradication of Israel, but authorized by the Metropolitan Police (the police of Greater London). For Ben Jamal, protesters keep the flame “Due to the uniqueness of what is happening in the Middle East, with a genocide taking place under [leurs] eyes “ : “People demonstrate to express their emotion and denounce the complicity of our governments.he assures. They demand an adequate arsenal of sanctions to pressure Israel. »
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