Clarion India
LONDON – Police in London have estimated 100,000 people took to the streets for the “National March for Palestine” demonstration to denounce Israel’s relentless bombing campaign and total blockade of Gaza.
“We are all united to deliver the same message: we want the violence to end. We’re calling for an immediate ceasefire and for necessary humanitarian supplies to be safely delivered to the people of Gaza,” Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said in a post on X.
The violence will not end “until you address the root cause”, which he identified as Israel’s decades-long military occupation.
Chanting “Free Palestine”, holding banners and waving Palestinian flags, the protesters moved through London before massing at Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“As a Palestinian who’d like to return home one day, as a Palestinian who has brothers and sisters in Gaza, and family, I wish we can do more but protest is what we can do at the minute,” one woman, who declined to give her name, told Reuters.
Many of the chants and banners contained strong anti-Israeli slogans, and one protester held a banner with pictures of Sunak, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the message “Wanted For War crimes”.
