Demonstrations in support of Gaza took place this Saturday across the world.
AFP
Thousands of people demonstrated in support of Gaza across Europe and South Africa on Saturday for the first anniversary of the bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Waving placards and Palestinian and Lebanese flags, several thousand demonstrators marched into the center of the British capital late in the morning.
At the head of the procession in particular, the former Labor leader Jérémy Corbyn (now independent) and the former Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf.
“Stop the bombings”, “Free, free Palestine” and “Stop bombing hospitals” were among the most popular slogans chanted in London by the demonstrators, who marched peacefully. “There needs to be a ceasefire now. How many more innocent Palestinians or Lebanese have to die?” asked Sophia Thomson, 27, who was protesting with friends. “The fact that there are so many of us shows that the government does not speak on behalf of the people,” she said. she added.
A demonstration in memory of the approximately 1,205 people killed during the unprecedented Hamas attack in Israel on October 7 is also due to be held on Sunday in London.
During the offensive led in response by Israel, at least 41,825 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, deemed reliable by the UN. In Lebanon, according to the authorities, more than 2,000 people have been killed since October 2023.
In Dublin, the Irish capital, several hundred people demonstrated their support for the Gazans, shouting “freedom and justice for the Palestinians”.
In France, several hundred people marched in Paris and in large cities like Lyon (southeast), Toulouse (southwest) and Strasbourg (east) on Saturday to mark their “solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese”.
In Paris the demonstrators rallied from the Place de la République to that of Clichy, shouting “Palestine will live, Palestine will win”. At the head of the procession, several political figures from the radical left, notably the representatives of La France Insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Manon Aubry.
“Stunned”
In the crowd, Maya, 37, a Franco-Lebanese physics researcher who arrived from Beirut a week ago, said she was “stunned by the media treatment” of the escalation in Lebanon. “We don’t hear about the bombing of civilians.” Among the thousand people who also marched in Lyon according to the prefecture, Jérôme Faÿnel, president of a local collective supporting the Palestinian people, affirmed that it was for him the opportunity to denounce the anniversary of “a year of incredible brutality.
A Basel, Switzerlandthousands of people also gathered in a park near the station for a national pro-Palestinian demonstration called by the Swiss-Palestine Federation and around a hundred organizations.
In South Africa, in central Cape Town, hundreds of people demonstrated, waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israeli slogans at a pro-Gaza rally. Waving signs accusing Israel of genocide and racism, demonstrators – many of whom wore keffiyehs, the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel – marched towards the South African Parliament. “Israel is a racist state” and “We are all Palestinians,” protesters chanted.
Some of them indicated that they supported South Africa’s complaint before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Pretoria maintains that the Israeli offensive in Gaza violates the 1948 UN convention on genocide. Many South Africans compare Israel’s stance toward the Palestinians to apartheid, the segregationist regime imposed by the country’s white minority until the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994.
(afp)
