Tens of thousands demonstrated yesterday in London to end the genocide in Gaza, as Al Jazeera reported. Organizers estimated 100,000 there were, while police gave a figure of 40,000. The demonstration was both in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and to protest the British government’s failure to vote in favor of a ceasefire at the UN Security Council meeting on Dec. 8.
Protesters marched from London’s Bank Junction to Parliament Square, holding placards saying, “Ceasefire now,” “End genocide,” and the popular Palestinian slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The rally organizers were the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Participants included the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition and Friends of Al Aqsa.
AP reported on a rare demonstration held in Dubai yesterday, at the site of the COP28 Summit, in which 500 demonstrators gathered to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The U.A.E. had imposed rules whereby demonstrations could only take place in a small area controlled by the UN, and protesters were restricted on what they could say, where they could walk and what their signs could portray. They could not name the warring parties in the Gaza conflict, or display the Palestinian flag, and couldn’t use the slogan “from the river to the sea.” Of special note, they donned keffiyeh scarves and held signs that—instead of the Palestinian flag’s red, white, green and black—depicted watermelons. Not only was homage paid to the flag, but also the substitution had the benefit of poking fun at the attempt to avoid reality.
“It is a shocking level of censorship in a space that had been guaranteed to have basic freedoms protected like freedom of expression, assembly and association,” Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea told AP.
