A coach is going from Cardiff and Newport for a major protest against Israeli apartheid in London on Saturday, and organisers are urging people to join them.
Cover image: Cardiff for Palestine protest, May 2021, by Tom Davies
Pro-Palestine activists in Wales are set to travel to London tomorrow for a large-scale protest against Israeli apartheid and the shocking murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli security forces and their attack on those carrying her coffin on Friday.
The Free Palestine Demonstration is being organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and is backed by a number of trade unions, anti-racist and community groups.
Transport to London from Cardiff and Newport is being organised by the Palestinian Social Club and is open to all (details and ticket booking below.)
The protest comes in the wake of the murder of the veteran Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during an IDF raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.
Shireen Abu Akleh and her colleague, who survived, were both fired at despite clearly wearing a bulletproof vest marked PRESS. The incident has once again brought to the fore the brutal nature of the 74 year long Israeli occupation of Palestine and the violent subjugation of its people. Recently, Israel’s leading human rights organisation ,B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all declared that Israel is practicing a system of racial apartheid.
On Friday, shocking videos from Al Jazeera showed heavily armed Israeli security forces violently attacking a funeral procession for Shireen Abu Akleh, where mourners were trying to carry her coffin to its resting place in Jerusalem.
“I’ve looked at news throughout the world for decades,” says the Al Jazeera newsreader, “and I’ve never seen a scene like this. Look at that, attacking innocent people carrying a casket!”
At one stage, police armed with batons and guns drive into those carrying Shireen Abu Akleh’s coffin, causing it briefly to fall.
Saturday’s demonstration in London has been planned for months around 74th anniversary of the Nakba – the creation of the modern state of Israel when Israeli settlers – backed by the West – conducted a programme of ethnic cleansing that eradicated over 500 villages and cities in Palestine, displaced over 750,000 Palestinians, and took over 78% of the land of historic Palestine.
But the protest has taken on added urgency following the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh this week, and thousands are expected to take to the streets.
It also comes a year after Wales and much of the world erupted in passionate displays of solidarity with Palestine following ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the bombing of Gaza, where over 260 were killed by Israeli bombarment. In Newport and Cardiff, thousands took to the streets in some of the biggest pro-Palestine protests the country has ever seen.
The Palestinian Social Club are organising the coach for the May 14 Nakba demonstration in London.
Tickets are just £12 for adults, £7 for 11-18yrs and £24 for families. The coach will be leaving from the Museum steps at 8am and picking up from the Coldra roundabout near Newport.
Activists from Wales will be meeting at the corner of Duchess St and Portland Place, London, between 11.15 and 11.30 to march together as a bloc on the Free Palestine Protest.
