London: 100,000 marchers call for Gaza ceasefire

Corbyn addresses crowd. Image: ICN/PC

Tens of thousands of people attended the latest national march for Palestine in London on Saturday, a day after the USA had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Britain had abstained. All other council members had voted in favour.

Marching from Bank to Parliament Square, under leaden skies and gusty wind, demonstrators were aghast at the British and American positions which were roundly condemned. 'Ceasefire Now!' came the rallying cry.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called the emergency vote by invoking Article 99 of the UN charter, a measure unused in decades, saying that 'the people of Gaza are looking into the abyss.' The article allows the Secretary-General to 'bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.'

Israel's war on Gaza has so far led to the deaths of at least 18,000 Palestinians - more than 70 percent of them women and children. The bombardment and destruction of more than a third of Gaza's homes has led international legal experts to raise the concept of 'domicide' - the mass destruction of dwellings to make a territory uninhabitable.

Speaking against a backdrop of the Houses of Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labour Party, condemned as 'disgraceful' the British government's failure to back a ceasefire and delivered the same withering verdict on the majority of his MPs who had also failed to do so. 'We mourn those who die because their lives are deemed unworthy of protection,' he said. He paid homage to the late poet and peace activist Benjamin Zephaniah who had spoken of his dreams to see a free South Africa and a free Palestine in his lifetime and concluded by urging an end to the arms trade which was perpetuating conflict around the world.

Speaker after speaker denounced the moral bankruptcy of the British and American states. John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, spoke movingly about all the babies and children who had died and those who mourned them.

Several spoke of their horror at the Hamas actions on October 7th but denounced what they considered the hideously disproportionate response by the Israeli state which amounted to collective punishment. There was a minute's silence for all victims, punctuated fittingly by bells tolling from St Margaret's Church, Parliament Square.

Several former Labour councillors spoke, describing their former party's position as unconscionable and why it had led them to part ways with Labour. There was a call of 'no ceasefire, no vote' and a massive disappointment in Labour's unethical position in refusing to call for a ceasefire. In an interview on Radio 4's Today Programme today, Labour leader Keir Starmer said he still did not support a ceasefire despite admitting the loss of civilian life in Gaza was 'intolerable'. 'The way forward here is for the hostages to be released, we can't lose sight of the fact that 150 people are still being held at gunpoint in tunnels and should be released immediately,' he argued.

Concerns were raised for the plight of Palestinians subjected to violence and terror in the West Bank. Chants rang out of 'Free Palestine' and 'In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians'.

Several Jewish groups were present and a speaker for Na'Amod - 'a growing movement of Jews in the UK seeking to end our community's support for apartheid and occupation, and to mobilise it in the struggle for dignity, freedom and democracy for all Palestinians and Israelis' - denounced the Israeli government's actions in Gaza as a 'desecration'.

The organisers announced that 100,000 had attended the march.