By M Ghazali Khan
LONDON: Thousands of protesters, estimated around 100,000, have demonstrated outside the Israeli Embassy against Israeli aggression on Gaza and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
Protesters shouted slogans, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’; ‘One to three four, occupation no more, five six seven eight Israel is a terrorists state’; ‘In a thousand in a million we are all Palestinians’; ‘Shame on Cameroon, shame on Netanyahu’; ‘Gaza, Gaza don’t you cry we will not let you die’.
They held placards with messages, ‘Stop bombing Palestine’; ‘Stop the massacre’; ‘BBC stop whitewashing Israel’s crimes’; ‘Cameron, change your friends or we will change the Prime Minister’.
The march started from Downing Street and ended at Israeli Embassy. It was addressed by several key figures.
Expressing her disgust at Israeli atrocities Baroness Jenny Tonge, who, in 2012, was forced to resign from the Liberal Party for her support for the rights of Palestinians said, ‘What on earth is Israel doing? It has lost its legitimacy, it is no longer a democratic state. It breaks international law, Geneva conventions, it has no respect for human rights. Israel must leave the international family of nations.’
Labour’s black MP from north London Diane Abbott who happens to have a large number of Jewish voters in her constituency said, ‘I am here to show solidarity with the people in Gaza: national demonstration will give people from across the country the chance to say enough is enough, Israel’s siege of Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian land has to end now. People want justice and freedom for the Palestinians, and they will be voicing this in their thousands.’
In his usually passionate speech the leader of Respect party and a world renowned human rights activist George Galloway lambasted the British media for ignoring Israeli cruelties on Palestianians.
‘The 300 Palestinians are completely ignored by the same newspapers, by the same television stations and by the same political leaders who are threatening sanctions and war against Russia but who are supporting, with weapons and money and diplomatic political and media support, the Israeli killers.’ Mr Galloway said.
‘In fact, if whoever fired that missile in Ukraine had fired it instead at the beach in Gaza, the media could have knocked off for an early lunch and saved themselves all of this work.
‘Why the double standard? Why is the blood in Ukraine so much more noteworthy than the blood in Gaza?’
In an another demonstration a week ago Mr Galloway had urged the protestors not to pay their TV licences announcing that he will himself not pay to the BBC.
Maintaining it support to Israeli aggression BBC has given very little coverage to the demonstration so much so that except its online it has completely ignored such a successful and massive march.
It should be remembered that BBC’s director of news James Harding is an unabashed supporter of the Zionist state. Mr Harding, also former editor of The Times, is on record to have told Jewish Chronicle, I am pro-Israel,’ he said. ‘I believe in the state of Israel. I would have had a real problem if I had been coming to a paper with a history of being anti-Israel. And, of course, Rupert Murdoch is pro-Israel.
‘We report the news and we leave opinion to the opinion pages, where we try to do a mix. We wrote an editorial called ‘In defence of Israel’ during the Gaza offensive, but we also reported on the use of white phosphorus, which was the Israelis breaking their own rules’ he said.
Interestingly in 2004 succumbing to the immense Zionist pressure Guardian newspaper had to get rid of its trainee journalist Dilpazier Aslam for his association with Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
One is not supporting and should not those British Muslim youths answering the call of so called from anywhere in the world. Far from helping anyone these youths are causing problems for their parents in particular and the Muslim community in general. However, it must be mentioned that the practice of British Jewish youths going to Israel and getting army training is a common knowledge and only God knows how many of them are involved in the crimes against humanity being committed on Palestinians.