Thousands march through London in support of Palestine

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Thousands of people have marched through central London in solidarity with Palestine.

“Free Palestine”

Those marching congregated at Victoria Embankment on the afternoon of 22 May before making their way to Hyde Park. Holding banners, placards and flags, the demonstrators let off green and red-coloured smoke and chanted. They blocked traffic as they marched along the protest route.

Palestine solidarity march – London
Protesters let off coloured smoke (Yui Mok/PA)

The protests came after an 11-day military offensive from Israel on the Gaza Strip. Some demonstrators could be seen wearing costumes, masks and face paint, while others were draped in the Palestinian flag.

Groups of police watched as some protesters climbed bus stops and lampposts and wrote “Free Palestine” on walls. Chants of “Israel is a terrorist state” and “We are all Palestinians” could be heard during the march. On 11 May, the Israel Defence Forces tweeted:

Our goal is only to strike terror.

Read on...

“I stand in solidarity with Palestinians”

As the crowd reached Downing Street, chants of “Boris Johnson, shame on you” rang out. A temporary stage has been set up in Hyde Park where a number of speeches will be made this afternoon.

Palestine solidarity march – London
Thousands marched from Embankment to Hyde Park Protesters (Yui Mok/PA)

Protester Muktha Ali from Harrow, north-west London, told the PA news agency:

I’m here because this is now urgent, the Israeli occupation needs to end now, it’s been long enough. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and children have been bombed and murdered, Palestine has to be free.

Another, named Jake, said:

I stand in solidarity with Palestinians, and so should everyone, no matter your nationality. It’s great to see so many people come out in their thousands to support the cause. We will win – our cause will be heard.

Palestine solidarity march – London
Banners and placards caused for peace in Gaza (Yui Mok/PA)

Among the groups present were branches of the National Education Union, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Stop The War Coalition.

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  • Show Comments
      1. Do you condone the bombing and killing of women and children, the demolition of people’s homes, both with bombs and bulldozers, and the creation of what is effectively a ghetto in Gaza?

        The above quote should read “Our goal is only to cause terror”.

      2. DRS. I have to assume that you are an ‘in house’ troll. There was meant to be 4 comments but I only found three, including your bollocks. Amazing that your gratuitous comments don’t see you excised – but I supose your in house status adds to the supposition that The Canary represents a leftish perspective rather than being its fashion aspiration. “Ooh, that DRS is a bit of a right-wing troll. The Canary must be really really radical.” Why would anyone that remembers the French Resistance condemn Hamas? Why would a seemingly right wingnut with an apparent fetish for a dead woman’s shoe support an obviously apartheid state? Oh, and just for the record, what’s your interest in ‘raping Jewish women’? Isn’t the fetish enough?

    1. Anyone that supports the Zionist occupation of Palestine is either a terrorist, supports Zionist terrorism, believes that it’s okay for religious zealots to occupy different people’s lands.

      On that basis, I see no reason that Catholics cannot justifiably occupy Golders Green and evict the people that have lived there for at least a few decades. It is clearly now acceptable for Mormons to occupy Edinburgh and evict the people that have lived there for hundreds of years. And it is now acceptable for Germans to occupy France, Iranians to occupy Arabia and so forth.

      The US see’s the Zionist occupation and eviction of the native Palestinians as fine as they evicted and occupied Native Americans before forcing them into reservations that are in most cases bigger than Gaza.

      So, Zionists and the US supporters are just brazen terrorists that claim to be democratic societies when they are controlled by the wealthy land owners and land stealers.

      I look forward to the day when people finally recognize that religion is fake, a fraud on humanity, that exists today purely to to empower the religious leaders, whether Catholic, Hasidic, Muslim, Baptist, Protestant, Hindu, etc., etc. All are bogus frauds.

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