Protest on Palestine. Why size & scale matters. Just ask the Met Police
Saturday saw protests across the UK about current events in Palestine. There were protests around the UK, if you checked social media. I noted Newcastle,Bolton, Manchester, Cambridge. There were also protests across the world, in France (where Macron has banned them) in Italy and Kerala, India where the writ of Modi doesnt run.
I was on the one in Cardiff which saw well over a thousand march from the Nye Bevan statue. It was big march for the Welsh Capital whose population is not a great deal more than that of a larger London Borough. It was also young and diverse a protest of those you don’t usually see much on protests.
The London protest was much, much bigger. The Met Police gave up estimating numbers on marches ages ago(it is a very imprecise science even for them) but they claimed 100,000 were present last week.Given a Guardian report noted, un-evidenced, the same number again perhaps the Met just re-issued their press release. We do know 1,000 officers were around.
The PSC said 500,000. It was certainly a good deal larger than last Saturday’s march and a march requiring stages in Trafalgar and Parliament Squares clearly was very large
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. A YouGov poll has found an overwhelmingly majority support a cease fire.
Aditya Chakrabortty has written in the Guardian of the problem for democratic politics when such protests are demeaned or ignored
The argument is not however 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.
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 and for a ceasefire and political rights for the Palestinian people.
.
If one person’s
Freedom Fighter
Is another’s
Terrorist,
Then Who
Owns the State
Which practises
Permanent Terror
And now
Extinction
On a people
It has dispossessed and
denied a State,
In the name of its own
Existence