HUNDREDS of thousands of Palestine supporters took the streets in towns and cities across Britain on Saturday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
In London an estimated 200,000-plus took part in the capital’s eighth national march and rally, and thousands more marched in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.
Manchester protesters again shut down Barclays Bank in the city centre in protest at its £1 billion investment in arms firms supplying Israel.
Trade union banners were raised and campaigners plan to spread the protests into workplaces and universities this week.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal appealed for donations to fund the capital’s protests, each of which costs tens of thousands of pounds to organise.
“We are in need of immediate financial support, as well as help sustaining the massive response needed to the new and unprecedented reality across historic Palestine,” he said.
“Palestinians need our action and solidarity more today than ever before.
“Palestinians in Gaza continue to be subject to what the International Court of Justice has accepted as a case of genocide.
“Over 1.7 million Palestinians are displaced sheltering wherever they can in the rain.
“Over 27,000 Palestinians have been killed with thousands more presumed dead under the rubble of their homes, schools and hospitals. And as presented to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in evidence, 10 Palestinian children a day are having one or more limbs amputated, mostly without anaesthetic. And still our political leaders refuse to act — still they remain complicit in genocide.”
He said the campaign must not stop and called for protests to be spread to workplaces.
“On Tuesday we are working with partners calling for workplace day of actions where we expect to see thousands of workers taking action to bring the cause of justice for the Palestinian people to workplaces up and down the country.
“On Saturday February 10, PSC branches will be leading another National Day of Action with marches vigils and pickets of Barclays bank taking place in dozens of communities,” he said. “And the following Saturday, February 17, we will be back marching in London, this time as part of a Global Day of Action for Gaza.”
