Protesting on Gaza 13/14th January. The Media & Reality
On Saturday a central London demonstration called by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, CND and others saw around 500,000 people march. The numbers are not exact but it was large enough to require two speakers platforms, one in Parliament Square and one in Trafalgar Square. The march was entirely peaceful but the police who have an ideological perspective on such marches mobilised 1700 officers and arrested 9 people. Its called wasting police time and public money.
The BBC (link below) managed to report that ‘thousands’ had attended. It also reported on Sunday that ‘thousands’ had attended a ‘I Stand With Israel’ rally in Trafalgar Square. A reasonable question might be how many thousands as pictures showed the Square to be far from entirely full.
On Sunday also the Jewish Labour Movement held a conference. Given that you don’t have to be a Labour Party member to be in the JLM it attracted a significant number of senior Labour figures (unlike Saturday’s demonstration) including Keir Starmer.
Starmer’s speech was mostly worthy sentiments about communities working together but it also included the following passage:
He said Jews could see “hate marching side by side with calls for peace”, and “people who hate Jews hiding behind those who support the just cause of the Palestinian state”.
It is indistinguishable from the thoughts of Dave Cameron on the matter and it is also notable for a lack of evidence on who ‘hate marchers’ were or are and a refusal to recognise that thousands had marched under the Jewish bloc banner on the Saturday protest.
Sunday’s rally seemed to focus on returning the remaining hostages taken on 7th October home, which is absolutely right but also requires a ceasefire. Some of those in attendance including the Israeli Ambassador and Suella Braverman definitely fulfil Starmer’s ‘hate’ category. I didn’t spot any Starmer thought on this.
So what you might say? There is a significant gap between the lived reality of people in workplaces and colleges and what the media and Westminster politics regard as reality. When 500,000 march that lived reality will bump against the official one in every community in Britain. And questions will be raised
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