20th National Demonstration since Israel launched its genocide upon the people of Gaza.

We need you to join us again on the streets of London tomorrow. We expect hundreds of thousands to take part in our 20th National Demonstration since Israel launched its genocide upon the people of Gaza.  

Next week we mark one year of this genocide, a genocide that has killed at least 42,000 Palestinians, destroyed the societal infrastructure of Gaza (schools, mosques, hospitals and universities), displaced over two million people, and left the entire population facing famine. A genocide built upon the foundations of over 70 years of colonisation, occupation and apartheid which continues unabated across all of historic Palestine. Yesterday brought fresh images of Palestinians collecting body parts in bags after Israel bombed a café in the West Bank killing 18 people.  

For months we have been warning that allowing Israel impunity for its crimes would not only leave thousands of Palestinians to face further slaughter, but would embolden Israel to provoke a wider conflagration. Now that reality is unfolding as Israel has begun intensive bombing of Lebanon, destroying villages and killing over 1000 people in a matter of days, hundreds of them civilians including children.

We march tomorrow to show the Palestinian people, who continue to endure and who will rise again from the midst of this devastation, that they are not alone.

We march to demand an end to the complicity of our government, public bodies, companies and corporations without whose support Israel could not sustain its system of oppression.

Please watch and share the video below. 

The last year has laid bare realities that Palestinians and we in the solidarity movement have asserted for decades. The reality that Israel is not a liberal democracy which should be treated as an ally, but a state established and run on one principle: advancing the supremacy of one group (Jewish Israelis) over another (Palestinians). The reality of the hypocrisy of the Government claiming to support international law and a rules-based order.

The stench of that hypocrisy was overwhelming this week as Keir Starmer, who has found himself unable to condemn Israel’s genocide and its bombing of Lebanon, rushed to the microphone to condemn Iran for its attack on Israel. The racism that underpins this hypocrisy delivers a clear message to Palestinian and Lebanese people: your lives don’t count. I am sure I can’t be alone in hearing the words of Tony Benn, delivered in the Commons during the Iraq war debate, echoing down the years with enduring moral clarity “Aren’t Arabs terrified” when they are bombed? “Don’t Arab women weep when their children die?”  

We will march again because we want the violence to end but know that it will not until its root causes are ended. We march again because, even in this dark chapter in the story of Palestinian liberation, we retain hope in the possibility of change. A hope nourished by our belief that, despite Israel’s overwhelming military force which its leaders and many of its citizens have been openly celebrating for the last 12 months, this past year will mark a turning point in the struggle for justice.  

We know that Israel is becoming increasingly isolated – on trial at the world’s highest court, its leaders facing prosecution at the ICC, and condemned in a UN resolution passed by over 70% of member states.  And even as powerful Western Governments fail to act, their citizens are rallying and winning important boycott and divestment victories. The message is being delivered to corporations around the world: there is no more business as usual with a state enacting the crimes of genocide and apartheid.  

For everyone who cares about justice, rights, and peace there is only one place to be tomorrow – on the streets of London.  

Yours sincerely,

Ben Jamal

Director, PSC