March for Gaza defies Irish loyalist opposition

A mammoth 25-mile Palestine march is set to take place on Saturday June 6, despite disgraceful attempts by pro-genocide loyalists to stop it. The March for Gaza in the north of Ireland will run from Lurgan to Omeath, just over the border, covering a distance mirroring the length of Gaza itself. Zionist terrorists have dropped the equivalent of more than six atomic bombs on the tiny area since beginning their holocaust in October 2023.

Organisers, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign Lurgan (IPSC Lurgan) say the march will:

…raise money for medical supplies, temporary shelters and much needed food and water for the people living amidst the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza presently.

Sadly, loyalists supportive of so-called ‘Israel’ have been attempting to block this noble effort. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLAs asked the Parades Commission to stop the march. The Parades Commission rules on the contentious issue of parades and protests in the Six Counties. Parades with sectarian elements, particularly those around the July 12, have often involved large scale disorder.

A march for “people of conscience”

The DUP falsely claimed that the march’s route was:

…deliberately chosen to provoke tensions within a quiet rural community which neither supports nor welcomes it.

In fact, the exact opposite is the case. As IPSC Lurgan explained in their application to the Parades Commission:

We have taken much care and deliberation with the route, trying to avoid any areas which would not like to have a procession passing through them. As such we are mostly travelling by country roads until we reach the Newry Canal towpath.

The main controversy revolves around the village of Scarva, populated mainly by people from a Protestant/unionist/loyalist (PUL) background. The default assumption is they identify more with ‘Israel’, whereas those from a Catholic/nationalist/republican (CNR) tradition are generally pro-Palestine.

However, the distinction is not always clearcut, and many from PUL communities have been appalled by the Zionist entity’s litany of war crimes. Retired Presbyterian minister Mark Gray has described the march as:

…an opportunity for people of conscience to have a say, and to express solidarity with Palestine.

There was minor unrest in Scarva the same march last year, when the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) made four arrests. A BBC report published at the time suggested these were from the unlawful pro-genocide counter-protest, who jeered the march while holding the flag of the apartheid Zionist settler-colony.

The outrage around the march is thus largely confected. Participants won’t even pass through the town itself, but will instead march along the Newry canal towpath that runs adjacent to Scarva. This didn’t stop cynical DUP efforts to characterise the march as a “deliberately provocative parade” and an “overtly political demonstration”, rather than the humanitarian cause that it clearly is.

Attempted counter-march fails

Their efforts have led to the Parades Commission imposing certain restrictions on participants. These include ruling that:

…no participant in the parade shall enter Scarva…

The Commission also ordered that:

While the parade passes along the part of the notified route along the Newry Canal Towpath at Scarva, no flags or emblems of any type shall be displayed and no chanting or singing shall take place.

Other local groups have tried to interfere with the march. A group called Scarva Concerned Residents have requested permission to stage a counter-protest in the town from 10:00 to 17:00. The Commission has granted this, and imposed typical conditions such as forbidding alcohol consumption and “paramilitary-style clothing.”

More alarmingly, the loyalist Markethill Volunteers Flute Band attempted to stage a transparent attempt to block the March for Gaza. They requested permission to walk down the same narrow route, at the same time, in the opposite direction.

The group, which has never submitted a Parades Commission application previously, comically suggested their event was “organised in good faith”, and that the “sole purpose” was “charitable and community-focused”. The Parades Commission ultimately ruled that they would have to start their march from Scarva to Portadown at 14:30. That is, after the March for Gaza passed Scarva.

Betraying their real motives, the band railed against what it called a “Republican appeasement process“. They will now join the Scarva Concerned Residents instead. They are calling for “thousands on the streets” to counter what they incorrectly describe as a “Republican / Palestine march through [the] village”.

In reality, the pro-Palestine contingent is likely to vastly outnumber those who sadly have a worldview so narrow, they put petty sectarian concerns over recognising the horror of a genocide that has now lasted almost three years.

Featured image via Charles McQuillan / Getty images