After an exhausting couple of weekends travelling down to Cardiff and Newport to attend demonstrations calling for an end to the bombing of Gaza, this weekend Mat Lee elected to stay local, going to a march in Aberystwyth organised by Dyfi Valley Palestine Solidarity and the Palestinian Refugee Project. Here he writes a brief reflection of the protest.
By Mat Lee. Cover image: Dyfi Valley Palestine Solidarity banner, by Mat Lee
My partner and I arrived at Aberystwyth station just after 12pm and were greeted by a crowd of around 200 people – no mean feat considering the damp weather, and the fact that the event had been announced just 3 days prior.
There was no room for tardiness. I walked into the station searching for the loos only to look back and see the march moving off. I dashed down the concourse and joined the throng. The toilets were out of service, anyway.
The main chant of the day was “CEASEFIRE NOW!”, to the beat of a samba band. We marched through town and then along the seafront, receiving a warm response from those milling outside the shops. People smiled as they took pictures of our banners and flags.
I was heartened to see some protestors wearing badges emblazoned with the logo of Cymdeithas yr Iaith (the Welsh Language Society), of which I am a member. Whilst making our way up to the castle, we fell in with a group of Welsh speakers and joined in when they began a chant of: “CADOEDIAD NAWR!” (i.e. CEASEFIRE NOW!).
At the castle the organisers had set up a decent PA and so for once we were able to hear everybody clearly.
The most powerful speech came from Rachel Solnick of Namood, an organisation of British Jews which campaigns against the occupation and Israeli apartheid. She proclaimed:
“Jews know what it is to be dehumanised, to be discarded, to be disposable. I do not stand with Palestine in-spite of my Jewishness, but because of my Jewishness […] Save Gaza, and free Palestine, our safety is with Palestine, not separate from it. They are us, and we are them, and as such our struggles are intertwined: none of us are free until we are all free!”
After the rally, we gulped down three coffees before reconvening to stage a sit-in inside the train station. The chants were again bilingual, including: “HEDDWCH NAWR”” (i.e. “PEACE NOW”), “KEIR STARMER, SHAME ON YOU”, and the ubiquitous “RISHI SUNAK’S A WASTEMAN”.
The latter chant prompted two confused protestors to approach me and ask, “what’s a wasteman?”
At the end of the day I was introduced to a young woman from Llandrindod who gladly accepted our offer of a lift home. As we chatted, she told me about the National March for Palestine in London, which was the first protest she had ever attended, the connections she made there, and the encouraging comments she receives from passers-by in her home town when they notice her Palestine badge.
She told me that next weekend she plans to march again.
Photo Reel courtesy @iwanap69
