Protest on Palestine. Why size & scale matters
Saturday saw protests across the UK about current events in Palestine. Most recently Israeli forces have destroyed a tower block housing the operation of the Associated Press in Gaza, while reports of dead and injured, including numbers of children are constant.
The protests today were world-wide. I attended the one at the Nye Bevan statue in Cardiff which not only was a good size but reflected a wide section of the community too.
Given the size of the City numbers will never be as large as in London, where estimates of numbers were 100,000 plus. Its important in this context to grasp that the London protest was not a national demonstration, as those in the Capital often are, but a local one. In that sense the numbers were truly impressive.
Who however was impressed? Boris Johnson and Priti Patel will have been impressed in the negative and no doubt ponder if they can’t manage to ban or restrict future protests- as was done in Paris for example.
The world contains large numbers of conspiracy theorists who may claim the media ignored the protests. They didn’t. You can find the BBC report on the news website (15.33) and the Guardian website also has a report, although it seems more interested in the Australian protest.
The argument is not a lack of reports but how much prominence they have or don’t have given the seriousness of the matter and the global scale of protest.
But if UK politicians mostly weren’t listening what was the point?
Several speakers at the London protest made the thing clear. It is an act of solidarity that will be seen and heard in Palestine and Gaza. Physical proof that many stand with them against the aggression of the IDF and the Israeli Government.
It is without doubt another 2014 moment. My perspective on that is here:
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