PALESTINE supporters in Britain and worldwide are expected to mobilise in huge numbers in a Global Day of Action on Saturday as Israel mounts its attack on the Gazan people’s last refuge, Rafah.
With 1.4 million people, mainly refugees, crammed into a city which is customarily home to less than 200,000, the feared effects of the Israeli onslaught have provoked mounting anger and increased calls for a ceasefire.
In Parliament next week, a Commons motion from the Scottish National Party calling for a ceasefire is expected to polarise MPs’ opinions and test Sir Keir Starmer’s authority over his own backbenchers.
Israel’s embassy in London will be among the targets for protests on Saturday for the first time since the weekly demonstrations began in October.
Thousands of people are expected to lobby Scottish Labour’s annual conference in Glasgow to demand that the party call for a ceasefire.
The SNP’s Commons motion calling for a ceasefire is expected to be heard on Wednesday, a week before the Rochdale by-election which has seen Labour dump its own candidate over his comments on Israel’s war on Gaza.
The motion “recognises that the only way to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians is to press for a ceasefire now.”
SNP foreign affairs spokesman Brendan O’Hara MP said: “It’s essential that the UK government and Parliament join international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza — by refusing to do so they are making an urgent ceasefire less likely.
“The time for warm words is over.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie said the Labour Party will face its most “shameful” moment since the Iraq war if it fails to demand a ceasefire during its Glasgow conference.
Anti-poverty charity War on Want executive director Asad Rahman said: “Unicef estimates at least 600,000 children and their families are trapped in Rafah.
“They are now staring death in the face with little to eat, hardly any medical care, nowhere to sleep, nowhere safe to go.
“This is an unfolding genocide — only an immediate ceasefire will end the bloodshed.”
In Manchester, 16 Palestine support organisations united under the “Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine” umbrella group will again mobilise Saturday.
The group said: “What more can be said about the situation in Gaza? How many more photos and videos do we have to see?
“We will not rest until we put an end to this monstrosity.”
Manchester protesters will gather in the city’s Piccadilly Gardens at noon.
In Wales, a Stop the War Cymru group has been launched.
Convener Dominic MacAskill said: “Witnessing the developing genocide in Gaza we believe that Wales has a duty to join the international condemnation of Israel’s atrocities and the calls for a just peace in the region.
“Wales is waking up to that duty. Each week we are seeing more and more people on marches across Welsh cities calling for peace. It is time that our governments woke up.”
In Yorkshire, people of the Jewish faith have launched a “Yorkshire Jews Say Not In Our Name” group and petition.
Robert Cohen, a synagogue member from Leeds, said: “What happened on October 7 were terrible atrocities, war crimes, but what’s happened since to the Palestinian people has been far worse. It has to stop.”
Seven Palestine Action activists were found not guilty by a judge today after being charged in relation to a siege of an arms factory in Leicester supplying weapons to Israel.
