ONE key political divide overshadows all others in Britain right now — whether or not to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

The movement for a ceasefire is growing by the day. Actions in solidarity with the Palestinian people, overwhelmingly organised locally, are taking place in towns and cities the length and breadth of Britain.

Week by week Saturday marches through London have grown bigger, last weekend reaching a staggering half a million in size — the biggest peace march since the Iraq war. These national mobilisations have taken place simultaneously with big regional demos — some, like the tens of thousands who rallied in Bristol last weekend, rallying turnouts that would be respectable at a national demonstration in ordinary times.

This weekend the focus is on local actions, to raise community pressure on politicians to join the growing revolt against government — and Labour Party — policy, which is to support Israel’s murderous onslaught on the crowded, impoverished strip of territory it has held under an inhuman siege for 17 years. Even so, a central London rally in Trafalgar Square at 3pm is expected to be huge.

Next weekend, November 11, another national march is planned. Armistice Day might mark the most famous ceasefire in world history, but the Prime Minister hit out today at how “disrespectful” it would be to march for a ceasefire in Gaza on that date.

It’s a telling sign of how far our warmongering Establishment have perverted a national day to mourn the dead of the “war to end all wars” into a celebration of militarism, an annual chance to deride peace campaigners as unpatriotic lowlifes.

But the abuse piled on demonstrators only shows how rattled our rulers are by the evidence of mass public empathy for the Palestinians.

The great divide, for or against a ceasefire, does not divide the country along Westminster lines. The Labour and Tory positions are identical. This may be a familiar situation now Keir Starmer leads Labour, but in fact points to a much longer pattern of cross-party consensus when it comes to foreign policy and Britain’s role as a junior partner in the US-led imperialist camp.

It pits the political establishment against the people. 

It is not the only subject where this dividing line applies. Polls show consistent majority support for public ownership of rail, mail, energy and water — on these it is our political system which blocks implementation of the democratic will.

The leadership of every Westminster party backed Remain — but the 2016 referendum exposed the gulf between a majority of the public and their political representatives.

But unlike public ownership, the daily slaughter in Gaza and increasing Israeli terror in the West Bank carry an urgency that brings people out on the streets in numbers.

And unlike Brexit, the ceasefire is a cause that unites left-wing and progressive opinion, together with most of the labour movement.

Building the demonstrations must be the priority of the hour for the entire left. They combine some of the most important issues we face.

Not only do we need to do everything possible to stop the killing, pressure must be placed on Britain, one of Israel’s foremost military backers, to withdraw support for the steady colonisation of Palestine now that the most right-wing government in Israeli history is intent on completing the project.

Marching for Palestine is a challenge to the pro-imperialist consensus at Westminster and a defiant reassertion of the need for a peace movement Starmer and his cronies have tried so hard to exorcise. It can help build resistance to our government’s disastrous foreign policy in other areas — vital given the US-led drive to a world war with China.

And — as the calls from ministers for bans and arrests show — only in numbers can we halt the deepening authoritarianism of the British state, which is legislating to suppress protests and effective strike action altogether.