Millions protest Gaza genocide on world's city streets, Orthodox Jews burn Israeli flag Tony Gosling

There is no excuse for using your air force to bomb millions of civilians and deprive them of water for weeks. Not unless you WANT your country to be wiped off the face of the earth...Show more

Millions protest Gaza genocide globally on city streets, Orthodox Jews burn Israeli flag Tony Gosling

Israel-Palestine: Hundreds of thousands march for Gaza in London

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-hundreds-thousands-brave-rain-march-gaza-london

Protesters in Britain decry government attempts to quell pro-Palestine speech, vow to march until Israel's bombardment of Gaza ends

People take part in a 'March For Palestine' in London on 21 October to 'demand an end to the war on Gaza' (AFP) - By Areeb Ullah - Published date: 21 October 2023

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of London for a second consecutive week to protest Israel's continued bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Marching in the rain and torrential wind, the demonstration began in Marble Arch, where protesters gathered before heading to Downing Street - the official residence of Britain's prime minister. 

While hundreds amassed in the courtyard of Marble Arch in central London holding Palestine flags and placards that called for "Sanctions on Israel" and an end to the bombing of Gaza, Barnaby Raine began the march a little earlier. 

"I couldn't get on the train from like three stops away because the platform was so packed. So we just started walking up the street for two miles, walking up to Marble Arch where it was packed with people chanting 'Free, Free Palestine'," said Raine, who lives in London. 

For Raine, this march is personal. He is Jewish and an outspoken advocate for the Palestine cause. Having marched for Palestine from a young age, Raine believes it is his duty as a Jew to protest for Palestine.

"It's very much because I am Jewish that I am out here today. I'm here because when I see the language of 'human animals' and 'children of darkness' and 'the law of the jungle', I know that the Israeli state didn't invent racism. They're merely deploying the language of racism that was developed over two millennia in Europe to harass and persecute Jews," said Raine. 

"So my people were excluded and marginalised and eventually annihilated, and the same logic that motivated tsarist hatred and then colonialism all over the world is the same logic used by the Israeli state to paint Palestinians as savages to justify bombing Gaza." 

'A genocide is being carried out in my name... and I'm here to say absolutely not'
- Esther Jones, Jewish American in London

Organised by Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, pro-Palestine marchers could be seen waving Palestine flags as they moved through Piccadilly Circus, one of London's main iconic sites.

Organisers said at least 300,000 people marched on Saturday, dubbing the march the biggest pro-Palestine march in Europe in 20 years. 

While marchers headed down Park Lane, Aamira and her mum stood to the side, serving traditional Arab tea to protesters in little polystyrene cups as marchers bopped their heads to the song Dammi Falastini blasting from the balcony of a flat above them. 

Refusing donations from people taking the cups of tea, Aamira said the pictures coming out of Gaza made her come out to protest in London.

"It's my first protest. I keep seeing the videos on social media and I keep thinking, how can we continue with our daily lives?" Aamira told Middle East Eye. 

Organisers said that people from across the UK, including Birmingham and Leeds, had come on buses for the protest. 

More than 1,000 police were deployed ahead of the march, with the metropolitan police warning that anyone showing support for Hamas, a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK, or deviating from the protest route could face arrest.

The Met also added that the chant "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea" would not be deemed illegal in a protest setting. But protesters who use this chant outside a synagogue or Jewish school or directly at a Jewish person or group intended to intimidate would be deemed unlawful. 

Esther Jones is an American national who works as a consultant in London and has family in Israel. 

Holding a sign that reads "Jews against Genocide", Jones said that from a young age, Jews are often asked, "What would you do if you were there during the Holocaust?"

"And to be honest this is why I am here. Me being here today is because a genocide is being carried out in my name, in the name of the Jewish people, and I'm here to say absolutely not," said Jones.....