| August 9th 2014 |
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Free Gaza Demo
Went on the Free Gaza demo today. It was a march from the BBC headquarters at Portland Place to Hyde Park via the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square.
It was a great day. The event went very well and the mood was very good, helped I think by the glorious sunshine. This was the latest in a series of protests against Israel's mass killing of innocents. The demo was made up of people from all walks of life, faiths and nationalities. There was a lot of Muslims there. I would say it was half Muslim and half non-Muslim. It was great to see Jews there too, denouncing Israel's atrocities and saying "not in my name". I also saw some women from my homeland, Scotland, waving Scotland flags alongside Free Gaza placards. Then was completely gobsmacked to discover that I knew one of them, whom I hadn't seen for thirty years! It was a big big demo. I find it difficult to judge numbers but seeing everyone at the destination point in Hyde Park and comparing it with the 60,000 people I have seen at a football match, I would say it was multiples of that. There was a number of speakers at Hyde Park. One of the biggest cheers was for a Jewish guy from an organisation of Jews that support Palestine. That sums it up for me. It is often portrayed as Jew versus Muslim but it's really Israel versus Palestine. Today Muslims, Jews, Christians and others walked shoulder by shoulder to protest against Israel's war crimes. A united sense of outrage and great to be a part of it. I only took one picture. It was the most striking image of the day. Orthodox Jews protesting against Israel and shaking hands with Muslims. Again summing up what it's all about. Posted in categories Events Politics Post URL http://londontownblog.com/posts.php?post=109 |
