For the second consecutive Saturday, a huge demonstration took place for Gaza in London on 26 July.
The Independent said: "Tens of thousands of people amassed outside the Israeli embassy in London today to protest against Israel's incursion into Gaza which has killed over 1000 Palestinians, including at least 192 children.
"Chanting messages of solidarity to the Palestinian people, a constant flow of supporters filed through High Street Kensington underground station from early in the day.
"45,000 people joined the demonstration, which later followed a route to Parliament, according to figures released by the Metropolitan Police."
When the marchers reached Parliament Square, among the many speakers they heard were MPs Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn, musicians Brian Eno and Dave Randall, the poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's Bruce Kent.
The demonstration organisers put the turnout at over 60,000. If the many thousands who protested at Gaza solidarity events round the country are added to the London figure, this was one of the largest mobilisations for Palestine in British history.
Cities and towns that held protests on the same day as London included Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Hastings, Hebden Bridge, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool, Middlesborough, Newcastle, Oxford, Peterborough, Preston, Salisbury, Sheffield, Southampton and Stroud.
That day, there were also demonstrations worldwide. From Tehran to Paris, Islamabad to Berlin, Jammu in India to Wellington in New Zealand, Singapore to Buenos Aires, Tunis to Seoul, from Durban in South Africa to Dublin in Ireland, from Oslo to San Francisco: hundreds of cities and towns in every continent all calling for an end to the attack on Gaza and a lifting of the siege.
Thousands rallied in cities across Australia on July 26 and 27.
And notably, about 5000 protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel, under the banner, "No more deaths -- Israeli-Palestinian peace, now."
Demonstrators chanting “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies,” called for an end to the occupation and the siege on Gaza, and lit candles to commemorate the victims.
The demonstration would have been far higher if the police had not originally banned the protest, fout of fear, they said, of a rocket attack, which made many protesters on their way turn back.
The people of Palestine will know from this great show of global solidarity that there is a growing international movement to end 70 years of colonisation of Palestine and the brutal oppression of its people by the state of Israel.
[Reprinted from Stop the War Coalition.]
Above: Footage of the July 26 London demonstration. Below: Stop the War Coalition's John Ress speaks to Sky News about the reasons for the protest.
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