“Our solidarity, our voices, our action are needed now more than ever. Since October Palestinians have been experiencing the darkest times since the 1948 Nakba.”
Louise Regan, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
By Louise Regan, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Our solidarity, our voices, our action are needed now more than ever. Since October Palestinians have been experiencing the darkest times since the 1948 Nakba. We have all seen the harrowing images played across our television and social media screens, heard the voice of 6 year old Hind calling for help from a car in which she was left as the only survivor of an Israeli airstrike. The figures of Palestinians killed continues to rise daily, currently at least 33,207 which shockingly includes 14,500 children and 9,560 women. During the ICJ hearing we learnt that at least ten children a day are facing amputations with no anaesthetic, we have heard of new acronyms created for the situation on the ground WCNSF – wounded child no surviving family. Alongside this the lack of humanitarian aid means that we are now witnessing people facing starvation, dehydration and death from diseases that there is no medication to treat.
Whilst we are witnessing these horrors on a daily basis we have witnessed the shameful and unforgivable complicity of our political leaders who even as Israel stands charged in the world’s highest court for the crime of genocide, continue to protect it from accountability, continue to sell it weapons, continue to cut funding to UNRWA the only agency with the capacity to deliver the food and essential supplies needed right now in Gaza, as 1.7 million Palestinians according to the UN face catastrophic hunger.
In the midst of this darkness the only light has been the endurance of the Palestinian people and the extraordinary growth of solidarity we have seen globally but especially here in the UK from ordinary citizens. We have seen unprecedented numbers of people taking to the streets since October close to a million at its largest but regularly over 200,000 people. Peaceful marches calling for an end to the horrors that we are witnessing, calling for peace and justice for the Palestinian people.
Despite attempts to silence us we have not been silenced. From the national demonstrations to the local days of action where we have seen protests, vigils and boycott actions taking place in towns and cities across the country.
Right now every ounce of our energy and effort is devoted to increasing the pressure for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the ending of weapon sales to Israel, for all the needed humanitarian aid to be allowed in to Gaza and for funding to be restored to UNRWA so that that aid can be properly distributed.
On Christmas day, Munther Isaac the Palestinian priest delivered these words from his pulpit in Bethlehem,
“Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. This is a genocide. We will rise we will stand up again from the midst of destruction as we have always done as Palestinians but I want you to look in the mirror and ask yourselves this where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide?”
But we know that history did not begin on the 7th October. Palestinians have suffered decades of oppression and dispossession. This genocide is built on the foundations of more than 75 years of colonisation, military occupation and apartheid. Our longer term task is to harness all of the energy being brought into the movement into sustained campaigns to achieve the change required to enable the Palestinian people to finally be free.
The solidarity that has brought so many of us to the streets of London in our hundreds of thousands shows our Palestinian sisters and brothers that we stand with them, that we will not stand silently by when we see people facing injustice and oppression. Palestinians have always told us that they need our words but they also need our actions. They need us to act to end the complicity of our government, our public bodies and our companies and corporations without whose support Israel could not sustain its system of oppression.
We must continue to raise our voices, to make clear that we are not going anywhere until we get an immediate and permanent ceasefire, we will march, rally, speak out, use all the energy we have to end the continued bombardment of the people of Gaza.
Finally let us remember the words of Munther Isaac, each and every day let us ask ourselves, ‘where was I when Gaza was going through a genocide?’
I will be on the streets, I hope you will too.
- Louise Regan is Chair of the PSC. You can follow the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram
- London March for Palestine, Stop Arming Israel! Saturday 13 April, 12 noon – Assemble: Russell Square – March to Parliament Square. More details here.
- Details of all events for this Saturday’s Day of Action for Palestine can be found on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign website here.
