MORE than 2,000 people rallied in Glasgow on Saturday, marching for peace and in memory of Gaza’s lost fathers.

Torrential rain did little to dampen the spirit and the solidarity of those who gathered at Glasgow Green for the national demonstration organised by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee.

The march went ahead without one of the committee’s most prominent campaigners, Mick Napier, arrested the day before on allegations he had breached his bail terms at a protest at Barclays Bank in the city a week earlier. 

The arrest is his second this month on such allegations; the first led to Police Scotland having to release him and apologise after an hours-long stand-off with supporters.

The latest arrest left him detained until Monday, in what supporters branded a calculated act to disrupt the solidarity movement.

Winning honks of support from drivers, the march grew in size and strength as it wound through the Merchant City to the Buchanan Street steps for speeches.

Speakers included Scottish Green Palestinian Solidarity convener Adam al-Khateb and Aslef’s Hussein Ezzedine, but the biggest cheers of the day were reserved for two rabbis, who had led the march arm-in-arm with Palestinian campaigners.

Speaking via the committee’s John Hilley to comply with the sabbath, Rabbi Haim Sofer told the rally: “We bring greeting from the people of [north London’s] Stamford Hill who are resisting the illegal occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide of the people of Gaza.

“Palestinians were welcoming Jews into Palestine for hundreds and hundreds of years: they tolerated us, they welcomed us when other people expelled us.

“Yet in 1948, the imperial zionist powers created a terrorist military power that kicked out, with brutality and viciousness, close to a million Palestinians from 731 villages and towns. 

“The zionist prime minister said that old Palestinians will die and the young ones will forget: No, they won’t!

“Look at the horrific genocide in Gaza. Whole families wiped out, the educational system completely wiped out, hospitals destroyed and still no medicine, no food, no clean water.

“Raise your voices for these brave people.

“The solution is to break the vicious siege of Gaza. Dismantle this racist, fascist state and establish a Palestinian state from the river to the sea — where Jews, Christians, Muslim, Palestinians will live under one Palestinian flag.”