For Gaza we marched
We marched in our thousands in the hope of sending a message: ‘Stop the bombing, stop the crime, Israel out of Palestine!’ We marched in the hope that we would be heard: ‘Baghdad, Beiruit, West Bank Gaza!’ We marched in the hope that we can challenge, that we can express our solidarity, that we can contribute our defiance to that of the people of Gaza: ‘Globalise the intifada!’
0ver 50,000 people marched in London with protests in 18 other cities across the country. We were not alone, all over the world, from Berlin to Jakarta, people took to the streets in protests called within days of the atrocities committed by the Israeli war machine. Images of the civilian population of Gaza reeling under the weight of hi tech munitions, continuing embargoes, and slanderous attacks on their defiance have touched millions across the globe. It is a situation all too familiar, a seemingly never ending cycle of violence and oppression. We march, we protest, we write, we resist, we donate, we lobby, we cry, we shout, we fight; but why (– doesn’t sound right)?
Our motivations are as endless as the capacity of the oppressors to destroy, but our objective is one and noble: justice! Justice for the Palestinians whose lands are being robbed, uprooted and scarred by the concrete of the apartheid wall; Justice for the refugees ethnically cleansed from their villages in 1948; Justice for the thousands of political prisoners illegally incarcerated; justice for the farmers whose olive trees have been up rooted; Justice for the families whose Sons, Daughters, Fathers, Mothers, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles have been killed; Justice; only when the wrongs committed against the people of Palestine have been put right will there be peace, real peace, peace based on the virtues of freedom and the reconciliation of justice: ‘No Justice, No Peace!’.
Incredibly, the quest for justice is met by (incredulity-this word doesn’t sit well-in sentence that begins with incredible) by the people who run our world, but perhaps this is not surprising given the fact that they form a class of self-interested elites intent on creating ‘stability’ and the wonderful concept of ‘peace’. A nice peace, all white with lots of beautiful doves, where everywhere there are people being nice to each other and we get along and do business, make money, meet on the weekend, have fun etc etc, e after t after c…. They inhabit a world of shuttle diplomacy, of peace talks, calls for a ceasefire, making resolutions, smiling at the cameras, laughing, eating, drinking, shaking hands, all in a day’s work…of making peace…whilst a people continue to perish.
And yet they will never have to endure watching their mother or father slowly die, painfully, from cancer without access to medication because of an embargo; they will never witness their child’s school bombed and burned by radioactive munitions; they will never experience the pain of losing a loved one every other day from shells, bombs or missiles. No, they’re worlds apart and it is these people, the self named international community, with they’re aptly named peace envoy, we are told to have faith in, to help the people of Palestine.
For this reason the people of the world have taken to their streets … ‘whose streets our streets’… to exercise their power … ‘POOWWEEER!, poowweerr! Power to the people, coz the people have the power’… to say to our rulers, this world is ours … ‘WHOSE WORLD? OUR WORLD!’… In our world, humans should be equal and since Palestinians are humans too, they are not expendable electoral assets to be used for the careers of opportunistic Israeli politicians. There is however hope, because, no matter how formidable the oppressor, no matter how high they build their walls at the end of the day, those ‘walls are made of bricks, and bricks, they can be broken,’ history illustrates that the oppressed can win. And it is to history we seek inspiration for our struggle, for it was not long ago when the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, was aided by those on the outside who waged a vigorous and heroic campaign of direct action and boycotted South African goods. We can do the same and Israel knows this, which is why its supporters have stopped at nothing to sabotage past attempts at a significant boycott. But in these past few days, in which Palestinians have had to endure horror after horror, everything has changed.
It is in knowing and being inspired by the courage and heroism of the Palestinian people in their moment of defiance, that we in Britain will be willing to defy the police and March on the Israeli embassy, this is why there will be more vigils outside the BBC in Manchester and protests across the country, this is why we will raise the boycott, this is why we will build the Palestine campaign with renewed vigour, this is why there will be even more people going to London next Saturday (the 10th of January); this is why when we March on that embassy, we will declare, ‘we are all Palestinians and we demand JUSTICE!’
