Protest on Palestine. Why size & scale matters
Saturday saw protests across the UK about current events in Palestine. The BBC reports that the UN says Gaza faces the abyss, due to Israeli Government military action
The protests were not only in the UK- there was a sizeable protest in Barcelona which is twinned with Gaza. In the UK 100,000 plus marched in London but there were also marches in Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow and elsewhere
Who however was impressed? It seems unlikely that either Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer noticed that their bellicose statements on the matter don’t fit a wider move of concern, focused on the impact on civilians
The world contains large numbers of conspiracy theorists who often claim the media ignored the protests. They didn’t. You can find the BBC report on the news website https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67110119.amp
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.
Some papers, the Mail inevitably, searched for Hamas sympathisers on the London protest. They may have found a couple but failed to grasp that this is about solidarity with the Palestinian people and resistance to a brutal military operation.
You had to look to social media to find that numbers of Jewish people were on the London protest, horrified on what is taking place in Israel as well as Palestinian but understanding that the renewed cycle of violence stems from actions taken over time by the hard to far right Israeli Government. The leading Israeli paper Haaretz has been saying this for several weeks now.
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 across the world Physical proof that many stand with them against the aggression of the IDF and the Israeli Government.
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IDF?