Massive protests against Israel in UK and Ireland cities

Amer Sultan in London , Sunday 27 Jul 2014

More than 60,000 protesters in London took to the Israeli Embassy and House of Parliament on Saturday

London
Demonstration in the UK in solidarity with Gaza (Photo: Amer Sultan)

The streets of the UK and Ireland have witnessed massive demonstrations to support Palestinians in the occupied territories.

On Saturday in London, more than 60,000 protesters took to the streets, chanting messages of solidarity with the Palestinian people. They demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy for several hours, describing Israel as a terrorist and racist state, expressing their support for the right of Palestinian people to resist the Israeli military occupation of their lands.

The protesters later marched to the House of Parliament.

This mass demonstration was the last of series of protest to condemn Israeli air, land and sea attacks on Gaza.

Hugh Lanning, Chair of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, accused Israel of violating of international law with its attack on the civilian population of Gaza.

Other organizers include Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Stop the War Coalition (SWC), Palestinian Forum in Britain, Muslim Association of Britain (BMA), Islamic Forum in Europe and Israeli Coalition against House Demolitions (UK).

Demonstrations have been also organized in Salisbury, Newcastle, Cambridge, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Southampton, Cardiff and Oxford.

The demonstrations came days after members of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign along with MPs Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn and Caroline Lucas delivered an open letter to Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister David Cameron to halt arms trade with Israel.

“We are deeply alarmed by the British Government's lack of response to the developing crisis and – in particular – the situation for Palestinian civilians,” the latter said.

The letter has been signed by more than 41,000 people including 17 MPs, two House of Lords members, authors, artists and musicians.

The signatories demanded that the British Government calls for an immediate end to Israel's action which they say “fundamentally based on the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

The letter calls on the British government “not to buy or supply military equipment that has, or could be, used or tested as part of Israel's illegal occupation or as part of its collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

“Our aid and arms are helping to kill these innocent people in Gaza. Now it’s time for our government to respond appropriately and impose sanctions, in particular an arms embargo, unless Israel ends this bloody campaign of collective punishment against the Palestinian people.

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