Hi all, just got back in from a demonstration against the assault on Gaza. It happened in central London, with over 100,000 people marching. Pictures and anecdotes after the jump.
It's been arctic in London over the last three weeks. I may make a public plea to aggressors around the world to engage in civilian carnage toyotathons (HT Jon Stewart) during the summer months.
In spite of the snowy weather over 100,000 people gathered in Hyde Park to listen to an array of speakers call out against the attack on Gaza, and to march to the Israeli embassy in Kensington.
Arriving in Hyde Park, I was confronted by this sight
There were an immense number of people gathered around the stage, with a sea of people behind me and thousands still flooding in as this photo was taken.
On the stage Arab and Israeli poets spoke alongside politicians, trade unionists and glitterati such as Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger. Amongst the speakers, Richard Hudson, a member of the European Parliament, announced that the Socialist Group of MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) - the main left of centre grouping - had this morning agreed to oppose the new EU-Israel trade deal. This is a significant development and drew huge cheers from the assembled. However, the most moving address was given by Brian Eno, one of my musical heroes. He said in a soft voice that he had been in Hyde Park in the 70s to demonstrate against the Vietnam War, but the voices of authority had said, "You can't talk to these people". He had been there in the 80s to protest against apartheid in South Africa, in the 90s to demonstrate against the Serbian invasion of Bosnia, in 2003 to argue against the invasion of Iraq and had each time been told the same thing, "You can't talk to these people". He said that we dehumanise and refuse to talk to only those people whose suffering we wish to obscure. The crowd listened to his argument quietly and applauded loudly as he finished.
After the speakers we began the long walk to Israeli embassy.
The thing that struck me immediately was the breadth and diversity of support the demonstration had brought together. I spoke to older folk; including dyed-in-the-wool hippies and socialists, trade unionists (the most elaborately dressed were from the actors' unions, of course), academics and religious ministers. However, the majority of the crowd were very young. I spoke to two 16 year-old girls carrying bags from the sales at Amercan Apparel, they said they had been moved so much by the pictures they'd seen on teevee that they felt they had to come. "Who wins by this many children being killed?", one of them asked me, I had to reply "no-one".
The most striking participants, who were being cheered loudly and fist-bumped (yes there were 13 year-old Hizballah activists there) and hand-shaken heartily, were the Jewish protesters.
I spoke to a middle-aged Jewish lady about why she was here to protest. She turned to me and said, "It's simple, Israel is behaving like a pig, nothing justifies the suffering its inflicting". We talked about anti-Israeli feeling, and she said that was part of the reason she was there: "Anti-Israeli feeling's totally justified, by being here and standing with the people of Gaza I hope we can stop it becoming anti-Jewish feeling."
The aspect of the march that most struck me was the diversity of the viewpoints that had gathered together. There were shouts of "Allah au akbhar", "2, 4, 6, 8, Israel's becoming a racist state", "free free Palestine", "No to nukes in the middle-east" and many others. However, instead of focussing on the differences between the marchers there seemed to be a shared spirit that people could come together and let the UK government know that its unbalanced support of Israel was causing unhappiness. As a lovely well-to-do woman called Helen said to me:
"A friend of mine is visiting and we're going to the ballet this evening, but I said to her this morning that I'd have to leave here at my apartment and come here. How could I have enjoyed myself this evening if I hadn't stood in the cold and spoken out?"