ALTHOUGH the long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza has now come into effect, Saturday’s demonstrations in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and other places were a vital necessity.
The ceasefire remains extremely fragile, as shown by the Israeli air strikes on Sunday, killing at least 19 Palestinians, after there was a “technical” delay from Hamas in providing the names of hostages to be released. This was pure vindictiveness from Israel.
The agreement itself is divided into three stages, each 42 days long. Its overall aims are the release of all Israelis held in Gaza (alive or deceased), the release of some Palestinian prisoners, the return of “sustainable calm,” and the end of Israeli occupation and siege of the Gaza Strip.
However, over 18 weeks, there is enormous scope for Israel to break or undermine the agreement, as it has done on so many occasions in the past.
Furthermore, while Israel and Western governments would like the genocide of the last 15 months to be swept under the carpet, those responsible for it must be held to account — and that applies too to our own politicians and media who have so shamelessly de facto supported Israel’s actions.
Saturday’s demonstrations — 100,000 strong in London — have not merited even a brief report on the BBC News website, but that’s unsurprising given the broadcaster’s record of bias over Israel’s war on Gaza.
At the end of October, more than 230 people from the media industry, including over 100 anonymous BBC staff, as well as historians, actors, academics and politicians, wrote to the BBC director-general Tim Davie saying: “Basic journalistic tenets have been lacking when it comes to holding Israel to account for its actions.”
“Every television report, article and radio interview that has failed to robustly challenge Israeli claims has systematically dehumanised Palestinians,” they added.
Saturday’s London demonstration was therefore absolutely right to direct its protests towards the BBC, and the blocking by the Metropolitan Police, together with the arrest of chief steward Chris Nineham and scores of other people, is an outrageous attack on democracy and the right to free speech.
The statements by the Met and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that the protest would not be allowed near the BBC because of services at a nearby synagogue are entirely bogus. The nearest synagogue is a few hundred yards away from the BBC and not even on what was the proposed route.
The blocking of the march, and Nineham’s arrest, did not take place anywhere near the BBC, but at Trafalgar Square. The Met claims that a group forced its way through the police line, but as members of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have reported on X, that was not an accurate description of events at all.
Corbyn and McDonnell were at the front of the march, part of a delegation of speakers who wished to peacefully carry and lay flowers in memory of children in Gaza who had been killed. They did not force their way through, but were blocked by the police. Nineham was arrested while organising the presentation of the flowers and the dispersal of the crowd.
Announcing Nineham’s release after his being charged under the Public Order Act — essentially for organising an illegal demonstration — Stop the War Coalition national officer John Rees correctly characterised the Met’s actions as “a first-rank assault on the right to free assembly, the right to free speech. It is a state attempt to close down protests on the question of Palestine.”
However, as Rees continued, this has much wider implications. If the Met — and the government — can get away with it, then this is “a knife held to the throat” of every campaigner and “every trade unionist who wants to be able to demonstrate around an industrial dispute.”
The whole labour and progressive movement needs to step up to the mark and demand that the charges are dropped. Our democracy is at stake.
