View allAll Photos Tagged CeasefireNow
One of my favorite slogans is the “never again” of the Jewish people. It is a cry of freedom and self-determination. It represents a clenched fist against the historic suffering of their nation and those who would find any kind of pretext to reenact it. It is a clear message to current and upcoming tyrants: The Jews will not forget the lessons of the holocaust and the grievous pain and humiliation endured by their ancestors, from Babylon to Auschwitz.
This has to be, however, the moment in history when it is the hardest to recite that beautifully rebellious slogan with any proud defiance. It so happens that the zealot whose political platform is all about keeping the people of Israel safe has miserably failed to deliver on that promise and is now at large trying to save face by bombing civilian households and condemning another nation to deprivation and famine.
Oh how difficult it is to say “never again” as the bombs fall and Palestine suffers. Oh how callous does that beautiful utterance sound when the people who know firsthand what it is to be deprived and brutalized stay so quiet while their home-made tyrants deprive and brutalize the tribe next door. Oh how dirty does it feel to recite those two words when the zeitgeist seems to show that all the pain and deprivation endured by the Jewish nation across history has not resulted in the right amount of compassion for the other Semites across that ever expanding imaginary border. #ceasefirenow #gaza
Wikipedia: Gaza genocide
another can of worms
another stomach turns
yeah your ghetto burns
it's the song i hate
you got a stupid man
you got a ku klux klan
your funky battleplan
it's the song i hate
a sieg heil-in' squirt
you're an impotent jerk
yeah a fascist twerp
it's the song i hate
black robe and swill
i believe Anita Hill
judge will rot in hell
it's the song i hate
yeah a cross on fire
by a christian liar
a black attack at fire
it's the song i hate
yeah the president sucks
he's a war pig fuck
his shit is out of luck
it's the song i hate
another nazi attack
skinhead is cracked
my blood is black
it's the song i hate
we're banging pots and pans
to make you understand
we gotta bury you man
it's the song i hate
- Sonic Youth: Youth Against Fascism (1992)
Kamera: Nikon F3 (1989)
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f1.4 (1970)
Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 400
Kjemi: Xtol (stock / 9 min. @ 20°C)
Myrkur: Ulvinde (2003)
Ja, med ondt skal ondt fordrives i en svunden krop
Buret inde som et dyr, de lukker aldrig op
Fanget i en dårekiste, drypper af mit blod
Mørkets trofaste lakajer lænket til min fod
Kamera: Nikon F3 (1989)
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f1.4 (1970)
Film: Foma Ortho 400
Kjemi: Fomadon Excel (stock / 7 min. @ 20°C)
Sorte byer
Forlater!
Forlater sitt åsted
Sorte fugler
Truffet!
Truffet i hjertet
Blodet strømmer!
Syndefloden!
Det siste lyset
Forakter!
Forakter det dystre
Setter kurs for Mekka
Stille!
Stille i døren
Blodet strømmer!
Syndefloden!
- Seigmen: Syndefloden (1992)
On Sunday 5 May, activists campaigning for a Gaza ceasefire, including several students as well as Camden Friends of Palestine, demonstrated outside London's police headquarters at New Scotland Yard. This followed the arrest of four protesters the previous day.
The four, who had been at a protest outside University College London, were arrested. as the Canary put it, for "carrying a painting with a peace dove on it," adding that "apparently blue sky is now antisemitic."
www.thecanary.co/trending/2024/05/07/ucl-arrests-student-...
They had been holding a large artwork of a dove of peace grasping a key (symbolising the famous key of return and the hoped for return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes) flying through a breach in the West Bank's infamous Separation Wall.
However, the Separation Wall doesn't stand anywhere near Gaza, and 80% of it doesn't even run along Israel's 1967 internationally recognised border or green line, running instead deep within the occupied West Bank separating Palestinian farmers from their land and Palestinian villagers from the water supplies.
Yet for some reason, which is difficult to comprehend, the police seem to have believed that the artwork expressed support for the 7 October attack. That might be understandable if there had been a paraglider depicted or any part of the Gaza boundary, but instead it featured the Separation Wall which has been frequently an object of political art ever since it was constructed.
Those detained were released, according to what I heard, on bail and, I understand, in at least some instances, without their phones.
According to a tweet by Vijay Prashad quoted in the Canary - "The police said that this image at UCL was illegal because the blue sky was in reference to the weather on October 7, 2023." He added "I would like to have a conversation about art criticism with the inspector in charge from Holborn police."
www.thecanary.co/trending/2024/05/07/ucl-arrests-student-...
Hopefully someone can explain that a blue sky above the Separation Wall is nothing unusual let alone some secretive message in support of terror as can be seen in the following linked photographs of the Separation Wall - I can't see a single cloud in any of them - and most were presumably taken before 7 October 2023.
www.mediastorehouse.co.uk/discover-images-by-awl/lookout-...
www.alamy.com/the-separation-wall-in-bethlehem-palestine-...
www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/290200769713725569/
www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-israeli-separation-w...
www.istockphoto.com/photo/idf-tower-and-barrier-rachels-t...
www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-palestinian-...
www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-israeli-separation-wall-im...
www.istockphoto.com/photo/palestinian-children-at-playgro...
www.istockphoto.com/photo/foreign-visitors-touring-separa...
www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/an-eight-meter-hi...
Photo licence
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes or to raise money. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
Con un attacco di terra senza precedenti, questa notte l’esercito israeliano, comandato dal criminale di guerra Benjamin Netanyahu, ha fatto irruzione armata a Gaza City, occupandola, bombardandola.
L’obiettivo finale: colonizzarla.
Come tutto il resto.
Si sono contati 37 attacchi in meno di 20 minuti, con i rumori delle esplosioni che si sentivano fin davanti alla casa di Netanyahu, dove migliaia di israeliani e parenti si sono riversati per protestare per la sorte degli ostaggi (e solo per quello).
Si parla di 62 morti, ma sono con ogni probabilità molti di più. Quello che si sa è che migliaia di gazawi stanno fuggendo in migliaia alla disperata dalle loro case, le ultime rimaste, in lunghe carovane d’auto o a piedi.
È il punto più estremo della violenza israeliana, la “soluzione finale” di uno Stato genocida che agisce al di fuori di ogni diritto internazionale, addirittura sostenuta e spalleggiata da Stati Uniti e pure dall’Italia.
Di fronte a queste immagini non so come ministri, governo, Presidente del Consiglio, i negazionisti del genocidio, i pavidi, i complici, possano dormire la notte mentre cala l’ultima notte su Gaza.
#GazaGenocide #FreePalestine #CeasefireNow #EndTheOccupation #SpeakUp #BreakTheSilence #GazaUnderAttack #PrayForGaza #StandWithGaza #StopTheGenocide
#PalestineWillBeFree #JusticeForGaza
#SaveGaza #HumanRights
#WarCrimes #UNSilent #WhereIsTheHumanity
#EthnicCleansing #EndApartheid
#ShareToRaiseAwareness #BreakTheSilence
#TrendingNow #SpeakUp #DoNotLookAway
#ViralForGaza #islam #islamic #Israel #IsraeliCrimes #israelisterroriststate
Kamera: Nikon F3 (1982)
Linse: Nikkor-S Auto 50mm f1.4 (1970)
Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 200
Kjemi: Xtol (stock / 7 min. @ 20°C)
Wikipedia: Nuseirat refugee camp massacre (8 June 2024) - 274+ Palestinian civilians killed, 698+ Palestinian civilians injured
Wikipedia: Al-Sardi school attack (6 June 2024) - 33+ Palestinian civilians killed (including 9 children and 3 women), 70+ Palestinian civilians injured
The following statement on the Middle East was dated 31st January, 1970, and was read on 3rd February, the day after Bertrand Russell’s death, to an International Conference of Parliamentarians meeting in Cairo:
The latest phase of the undeclared war in the Middle East is based upon a profound miscalculation. The bombing raids deep into Egyptian territory will not persuade the civilian population to surrender, but will stiffen their resolve to resist. This is the lesson of all aerial bombardment.
The Vietnamese who have endured years of American heavy bombing have responded not by capitulation but by shooting down more enemy aircraft. In 1940 my own fellow countrymen resisted Hitler’s bombing raids with unprecedented unity and determination. For this reason, the present Israeli attacks will fail in their essential purpose, but at the same time they must be condemned vigorously throughout the world.
The development of the crisis in the Middle East is both dangerous and instructive. For over 20 years Israel has expanded by force of arms. After every stage in this expansion Israel has appealed to “reason” and has suggested “negotiations”. This is the traditional role of the imperial power, because it wishes to consolidate with the least difficulty what it has already taken by violence. Every new conquest becomes the new basis of the proposed negotiation from strength, which ignores the injustice of the previous aggression. The aggression committed by Israel must be condemned, not only because no state has the right to annexe foreign territory, but because every expansion is an experiment to discover how much more aggression the world will tolerate.
The refugees who surround Palestine in their hundreds of thousands were described recently by the Washington journalist I.F. Stone as “the moral millstone around the neck of world Jewry.” Many of the refugees are now well into the third decade of their precarious existence in temporary settlements. The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was “given” by a foreign Power to another people for the creation of a new State. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their number have increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East.
We are frequently told that we must sympathize with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. I see in this suggestion no reason to perpetuate any suffering. What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy. Not only does Israel condemn a vast number of refugees to misery; not only are many Arabs under occupation condemned to military rule; but also Israel condemns the Arab nations only recently emerging from colonial status, to continued impoverishment as military demands take precedence over national development.
All who want to see an end to bloodshed in the Middle East must ensure that any settlement does not contain the seeds of future conflict. Justice requires that the first step towards a settlement must be an Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in June, 1967. A new world campaign is needed to help bring justice to the long–suffering people of the Middle East.
- Taken from Connexions.org: Bertrand Russell's Last Message (1970)
#GazaGenocide #FreePalestine #CeasefireNow #EndTheOccupation #SpeakUp #BreakTheSilence #GazaUnderAttack #PrayForGaza #StandWithGaza #StopTheGenocide
#PalestineWillBeFree #JusticeForGaza
#SaveGaza #HumanRights
#WarCrimes #UNSilent #WhereIsTheHumanity
#EthnicCleansing #EndApartheid
#ShareToRaiseAwareness #BreakTheSilence
#TrendingNow #SpeakUp #DoNotLookAway
#ViralForGaza #islam #islamic #Israel #IsraeliCrimes #israelisterroriststate
Kamera: Rolleiflex Instant Kamera (InstantFlex TL70)
Film: Fujifilm Instax Mini
Star Wars: Lars Homestead Burned (1977)
- Remember Palestine
19 July 2025, UK, London, Embankment to Whitehall. Tens of thousands of protesters brave the rain to march tto Whitehall in another National March for Palestine to demand that the Starmer government ends its support for Israel and reverses its proscription of Palestine Action.
A crowd of people file into a designated area in front of the Roemer Synagogue in Teaneck, NJ. The synagogue is allegedly one of a few in the northern U.S and Canada that is hosting real-estate company Keller Williams for the purpose of offering and selling land in the West Bank for illegal settlements. The sale of land for illegal settlements violates international law and the sale of these stolen properties sold exclusively to members of the synagogue is illegal according to U.S. anti-discriminatory laws which were founded in the years 1964-1968
A protestor, using a bullhorn, declares to the counter-protestors, "Palestine will be free!"
Shot captured at the Teaneck for Palestine rally in Teaneck, NJ.
Crowds gathered across the street from the White House to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Taken at the March on Washington for Gaza rally in Washington D.C.
9 June 2025
Spaventoso e inaudito quello che è successo.
Stanotte l’esercito israeliano ha fatto irruzione a bordo della Madleen, la nave della Ong Freedom Flotilla destinata a Gaza con a bordo Greta Thunberg, e ha rapito l’equipaggio.
Non arrestato, rapito. Perché questo è accaduto.
Prima uno sciame di droni urticanti sul ponte, poi l’ultimatum, infine l’irruzione armata a bordo degli uomini dell’Idf per bloccare con la forza dodici attivisti decisi simbolicamente a rompere l’assedio di Gaza con carichi umanitari.
Questo è un crimine di guerra, l’ennesimo di una serie infinita e impunita di quel criminale di guerra che risponde al nome di Benjamin Netanyahu, ben al di là di ogni legalità e legittimità internazionale.
Siamo di fronte a un gruppo di banditi liberi di compiere crimini contro l’umanità nel silenzio pavido, complice e inquietante del mondo intero, Italia ed Europa compresi.
Ma cosa deve succedere ancora perché il mondo apra gli occhi?
Siamo vicini e solidali agli eroici attivisti della Flotilla e va fatta ogni pressione affinché siano immediatamente liberati.
La vergogna non basta più. Non è un sentimento sufficiente.
On Saturday 11 May, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies - London) students protesting over Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza marched to join up with the UCL (University College London) pro-Palestine encampment.
(كلية الدراسات الشرقية والإفريقية - لندن) SOAS في يوم السبت 11 مايو، قام طلاب
الذين يحتجون على هجوم الإبادة الجماعية الإسرائيلي على غزة، بمسيرة للانضمام إلى
UCL المخيم المؤيد لفلسطين في جامعة
The action took place as the official death toll in Gaza, excluding the thousands missing and presumably buried under the rubble, neared 35,000, while doctors and medical staff were abandoning their patients in order to evacuate their families following Israel's leaflet drop informing tens of thousands that their homes in a previous relative "safe zone" to the east of Rafah were about to become a killing ground.
www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-battles-...
The horrific death toll now includes some 97 journalists and media workers and some 500 doctors, nurses and healthcare workers
cpj.org/2024/05/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-...
www.trtworld.com/middle-east/live-blog-israel-killed-500-...
As a full scale devastating assault on Rafah appeared to be imminent, Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State stated that the United States didn't have any "red lines" that would stop its support for Israel during an interview with NBC.
"Look, we don't talk about red lines when it comes to Israel."
www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-with-kristen-wel...
The official death toll in Gaza, as of the date of posting this image, has now passed 35,000.
More photos from last Saturday's SOAS and UCL protests as well as a CND protest outside the US Embassy to follow hopefully later this week.
Photo licence
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes or to raise money. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
At about 2.40 pm on Saturday 25 June, hundreds of activists staged a flash sit-down protest to close down London's Oxford Circus in protest at the UK continuing to provide diplomatic, military and logistical support to Israel during its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. [1]
Many of the activists had met up earlier at around noon at a Youth Demand (see YouthDemand.org) event at Victoria Embankment Gardens where they listened to some speeches before they dispersed in small groups, some followed by the police, but despite the challenging circumstances they seem to have been able to travel across central London presumably in different directions and regroup around Oxford Circus in a well planned and well coordinated protest.
Activists explained to onlookers that they had to carry out the action to try to prevent genocide. At one point a Palestinian shopper who came across the action by accident, spoke to the protesters, urging them not to give up.
Many refused to leave the road when threatened with arrest by the police.
According to the Morning Star, citing Youth Demand, 21 activists were arrested, but I don't know how many, if any, were subsequently charged.
morningstaronline.co.uk/article/21-arrested-after-blockin...
I took some video of the event which can be seen here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7xpmzEvRQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cdyKstOsFE&t
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOs_hQUo-z8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3YLFcmEBbQ
As of 24 June 2024, at least 37,626 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead.
There is also an unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines, while more than 86,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 23 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 130 ambulances, 267 places of worship, 80% of commercial facilities and 88% of school buildings damaged or destroyed.
www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-wa...
Additionally, as of February, the UN reported that some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational, adding that "all wastewater treatment systems are not working, and there is no access to clean water in the northern governorates."
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
Also, according to the Committee to Protect journalists as of 25 June 2024, 108 journalists and media workers have been killed, 103 Palestinian, 2 Israeli and 3 Lebanese.
cpj.org/2024/06/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-...
And as of 27 May, 8875 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, many of them held in indefinite detention with no right to trial, while the Israeli military and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank killing 518 Palestinians.
www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240527-8875-palestinians-arre...
Footnote
1. Re use of the term genocide. In March the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, referring to Israel's "unrelenting assault on occupied Gaza," stated that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
********************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
***********************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
The below is copied from Honest* page. See her inspirational pic here www.flickr.com/photos/honest/197083599/ She is a fantastic artist and true humanitarian. Adding my humble voice to the call for an immediate cease fire and an end to the madness that is going on in Lebanon and the Occupied Territories.
“This image is for the group about supporting Lebanon and raising awareness about the war that is occurring there.
Each member can add one picture only. The group is more about the discussions that will hopefully raise awareness of what is happening in Lebanon.
Join Speak up for Peace to show your support. www.flickr.com/groups/speakup/pool/
At about 2.40 pm on Saturday 25 June, hundreds of activists staged a flash sit-down protest to close down London's Oxford Circus in protest at the UK continuing to provide diplomatic, military and logistical support to Israel during its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. [1]
Many of the activists had met up earlier at around noon at a Youth Demand (see YouthDemand.org) event at Victoria Embankment Gardens where they listened to some speeches before they dispersed in small groups, some followed by the police, but despite the challenging circumstances they seem to have been able to travel across central London presumably in different directions and regroup around Oxford Circus in a well planned and well coordinated protest.
Activists explained to onlookers that they had to carry out the action to try to prevent genocide. At one point a Palestinian shopper who came across the action by accident, spoke to the protesters, urging them not to give up.
Many refused to leave the road when threatened with arrest by the police.
According to the Morning Star, citing Youth Demand, 21 activists were arrested, but I don't know how many, if any, were subsequently charged.
ttps://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/21-arrested-after-blocking-oxford-circus-to-demand-an-arms-embargo-on-israel
I took some video of the event which can be seen here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7xpmzEvRQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cdyKstOsFE&t
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOs_hQUo-z8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3YLFcmEBbQ
As of 24 June 2024, at least 37,626 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead.
There is also an unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines, while more than 86,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 23 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 130 ambulances, 267 places of worship, 80% of commercial facilities and 88% of school buildings damaged or destroyed.
www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-wa...
Additionally, as of February, the UN reported that some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational, adding that "all wastewater treatment systems are not working, and there is no access to clean water in the northern governorates."
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
Also, according to the Committee to Protect journalists as of 25 June 2024, 108 journalists and media workers have been killed, 103 Palestinian, 2 Israeli and 3 Lebanese.
cpj.org/2024/06/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-...
And as of 27 May, 8875 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, many of them held in indefinite detention with no right to trial, while the Israeli military and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank killing 518 Palestinians.
www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240527-8875-palestinians-arre...
Footnote
1. Re use of the term genocide. In March the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, referring to Israel's "unrelenting assault on occupied Gaza," stated that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
********************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
***********************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
A young girl waves a Palestinian flag from the back of her mom's SUV. The scene was captured at the Teaneck for Palestine rally in Teaneck, NJ. The rally included a car parade where participants greeted protesters with Palestinian flags waving, car horns honking, and hands raised in victory signs.
At about 2.40 pm on Saturday 25 June, hundreds of activists staged a flash sit-down protest to close down London's Oxford Circus in protest at the UK continuing to provide diplomatic, military and logistical support to Israel during its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. [1]
Many of the activists had met up earlier at around noon at a Youth Demand (see YouthDemand.org) event at Victoria Embankment Gardens where they listened to some speeches before they dispersed in small groups, some followed by the police, but despite the challenging circumstances they seem to have been able to travel across central London presumably in different directions and regroup around Oxford Circus in a well planned and well coordinated protest.
Activists explained to onlookers that they had to carry out the action to try to prevent genocide. At one point a Palestinian shopper who came across the action by accident, spoke to the protesters, urging them not to give up.
Many refused to leave the road when threatened with arrest by the police.
According to the Morning Star, citing Youth Demand, 21 activists were arrested, but I don't know how many, if any, were subsequently charged.
ttps://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/21-arrested-after-blocking-oxford-circus-to-demand-an-arms-embargo-on-israel
I took some video of the event which can be seen here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7xpmzEvRQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cdyKstOsFE&t
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOs_hQUo-z8
www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3YLFcmEBbQ
As of 24 June 2024, at least 37,626 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead.
There is also an unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines, while more than 86,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 23 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 130 ambulances, 267 places of worship, 80% of commercial facilities and 88% of school buildings damaged or destroyed.
www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-wa...
Additionally, as of February, the UN reported that some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational, adding that "all wastewater treatment systems are not working, and there is no access to clean water in the northern governorates."
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
Also, according to the Committee to Protect journalists as of 25 June 2024, 108 journalists and media workers have been killed, 103 Palestinian, 2 Israeli and 3 Lebanese.
cpj.org/2024/06/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-...
And as of 27 May, 8875 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, many of them held in indefinite detention with no right to trial, while the Israeli military and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank killing 518 Palestinians.
www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240527-8875-palestinians-arre...
Footnote
1. Re use of the term genocide. In March the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, referring to Israel's "unrelenting assault on occupied Gaza," stated that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”
news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146947
********************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
***********************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
we meet at 1
every saturday
we meet as one
at the bridge of remembrance
the days between are measured
now 300 children
slaughtered each day
what will it take
4 you to join us
4 silence also has a price
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
لو يذكر الزيتون غارسهُ، لصار الزيت دمعاً
محمود درويش
"If the olive trees know the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears." Mahmoud Darwish.
On Saturday 25 May, University College London (UCL) students called on the support of other students and supporters across London to rally outside their Gaza pro-ceasefire encampment after the announcement that a pro-Israel rally would take place outside their main gate that afternoon.
One of the most frequently heard chants by students on this and other days was
"Disclose, Divest,
We will not stop,
We will not rest."
Among the crowd there were many students from the neighbouring School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where an encampment had already been established about two weeks earlier.
SOAS students earlier published a list of demands including, according to two metre high placard at their encampment -
1. Disclose - Full details of all university investments
2. Divest - from companies complicit in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights - [a list of specific companies followed which included Barclays Bank, Alphabet (Google/Alphabet) and Microsoft.]
3. Terminate - the university's banking and lending arrangement with Barclays
4. Boycott - Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, including the University of Haifa
5. Commit - to supporting Palestinian education and the rebuilding of Gaza's Schools and Hospitals. Establish partnerships and exchanges with Palestinian institutions and academics. Increase scholarships for Palestinian students. Advocate for removal of restrictions for pro-Palestinian expression.
6. Guarantee - the right of students and staff to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation including in research, speech and actions.
7. Advocate - for the UK government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, to call for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
As of the date of posting (4 June 2024) at least 36,932 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead. An unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines. More than 82,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 2 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 80% of commercial facilities and 86% of school buildings damaged or destroyed. Additionally some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational.
ttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
***************************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
Place du Trocadéro, un drapeau palestinien se dresse devant la tour Eiffel. Au premier plan, deux pancartes identiques encadrent la scène : elles montrent le visage émacié d’un enfant palestinien, au-dessous duquel apparaît un message sans équivoque — « Stop au génocide ».
Lundi soir, à l’initiative du Parti communiste, le Parti socialiste et les Écologistes se sont réunis place du Trocadéro pour dénoncer la politique menée par le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahou à Gaza.
Pour la première fois depuis 19 mois de guerre — une période marquée par la mort de plus de 53 000 personnes, en grande majorité des civils — le Parti socialiste a utilisé et assumé publiquement le terme de « génocide » pour qualifier les événements tragiques en cours dans la bande de Gaza.
Cette prise de position intervient après les multiples alertes de Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International, Oxfam, de nombreux experts de l’ONU, et après la demande de mandats d’arrêt émise par la Cour pénale internationale contre des responsables du Hamas mais aussi contre Benjamin Netanyahou et Yoav Gallant pour crimes de guerre et crimes contre l’humanité.
On Saturday 25 May, University College London (UCL) students called on the support of other students and supporters across London to rally outside their Gaza pro-ceasefire encampment after the announcement that a pro-Israel rally would take place outside their main gate that afternoon.
One of the most frequently heard chants by students on this and other days was
"Disclose, Divest,
We will not stop,
We will not rest."
Among the crowd there were many students from the neighbouring School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where an encampment had already been established about two weeks earlier.
SOAS students published a list of demands including, according to two metre high placard at their encampment -
1. Disclose - Full details of all university investments
2. Divest - from companies complicit in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights - [a list of specific companies followed which included Barclays Bank, Alphabet (Google/Alphabet) and Microsoft.]
3. Terminate - the university's banking and lending arrangement with Barclays
4. Boycott - Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, including the University of Haifa
5. Commit - to supporting Palestinian education and the rebuilding of Gaza's Schools and Hospitals. Establish partnerships and exchanges with Palestinian institutions and academics. Increase scholarships for Palestinian students. Advocate for removal of restrictions for pro-Palestinian expression.
6. Guarantee - the right of students and staff to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation including in research, speech and actions.
7. Advocate - for the UK government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, to call for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
As of the date of posting (4 June 2024) at least 36,932 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead. An unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines. More than 82,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 2 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 80% of commercial facilities and 86% of school buildings damaged or destroyed. Additionally some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational.
ttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
***************************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
A shy cute kid peeking at the crowd of protestors. Captured at the Teaneck for Palestine rally in Teaneck, NJ.
On Sunday 5 May, courageous students at University College of London (UCL) continued to protest against Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza and to condemn Israel's war crimes, to press UCL to divest from companies complicit with Israel's war on Gaza and to play a role in the post war reconstruction of Gaza's universities. Inside the university, students had constructed a protest encampment, which had been set up on the main quad of campus on Thursday 2 May.
www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/encampment-set-up-at-university-c...
www.thecanary.co/trending/2024/05/07/ucl-arrests-student-...
Activists from outside the university gathered outside to show their solidarity as security at the main gate had been instructed to restrict access to the grounds only to students. The protest at the gate was small but, despite the grim circumstances facing Gaza's population, occasionally positive and cheerful and even included dance lessons (as can be seen in some of the photos). Since Sunday's protest at UCL, encampments have also been set up at SOAS, Oxford, Cambridge and other British universities.
While at the protest, I noticed journalist Sabrina Miller. Miller has written frequently for the Daily Mail as well as articles in the Spectator, The Telegraph, The Times of Israel and other newspapers. She can be seen in two of the photos in this series holding a notebook, though I'm not sure if she's yet reported on the protest.
Photo licence
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes or to raise money. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 25 May, University College London (UCL) students called on the support of other students and supporters across London to rally outside their Gaza pro-ceasefire encampment after the announcement that a pro-Israel rally would take place outside their main gate that afternoon.
One of the most frequently heard chants by students on this and other days was
"Disclose, Divest,
We will not stop,
We will not rest."
Among the crowd there were many students from the neighbouring School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) where an encampment had already been established about two weeks earlier.
SOAS students earlier published a list of demands including, according to two metre high placard at their encampment -
1. Disclose - Full details of all university investments
2. Divest - from companies complicit in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights - [a list of specific companies followed which included Barclays Bank, Alphabet (Google/Alphabet) and Microsoft.]
3. Terminate - the university's banking and lending arrangement with Barclays
4. Boycott - Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, including the University of Haifa
5. Commit - to supporting Palestinian education and the rebuilding of Gaza's Schools and Hospitals. Establish partnerships and exchanges with Palestinian institutions and academics. Increase scholarships for Palestinian students. Advocate for removal of restrictions for pro-Palestinian expression.
6. Guarantee - the right of students and staff to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation including in research, speech and actions.
7. Advocate - for the UK government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, to call for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
As of the date of posting (4 June 2024) at least 36,932 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October, including more than 15,000 children. An estimated 10,000 are missing, of whom most are probably dead. An unknown number of additional deaths due to excess mortality from food shortages, disease and difficulties in obtaining essential medical care and medicines. More than 82,000 Palestinians have been injured, many of them with life-changing injuries including many amputations. According to the United Nations, as of 2 June, more than half of all residential buildings have been destroyed or damaged but with some key infrastructure the destruction is even more devastating - including 80% of commercial facilities and 86% of school buildings damaged or destroyed. Additionally some 83% of groundwater wells are no longer operational.
ttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker
6,962 Palestinians
***************************************
Please follow me on Instagram at
www.instagram.com/alisdarehickson/
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation, person or publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Saturday 18 May, the 14th national rally since October 2023 was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups, and possibly as many as 250,000 protesters marched across central London from Mortimer Street W1 (near the BBC headquarters at Broadcasting House) to Whitehall, just a few metres away from prime minister Rishi Sunak's office and residence at 10 Downing Street.
It is difficult to estimate the total number of demonstrators but I stopped on Regent Street to photograph individuals and groups, and it took at least an hour for the majority of the marchers to pass.
Many of those participating did so in part to commemorate Nakba Day, the 76th anniversary of which fell three days earlier on 15 May. Nakba Day commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
Many of the protesters carried the iconic "Keys of Return," symbolising the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes, which was recognised by The United Nations UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which was passed on December 11, 1948.
Protesters were also demanding an immediate ceasefire, an immediate resumption and expansion of emergency aid and an end to the siege of Gaza and the illegal Israeli Occupation.
The march occurred just two days before the International Criminal Court's (ICC's) lead prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced that arrest warrants for war crimes had been requested for Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant who in October 2023 infamously justified his declaration of a "complete siege " on Gaza by claiming Israel was "fighting against human animals."
*********************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for over sixty NGOs and socialist or progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Wednesday 15 May 2024, about 300 SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) students and their supporters gathered in front of the "Liberated Zone" Gaza solidarity encampment. An area of activists tents within the university grounds.
The event was called to mark Nakba day which commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
A crowd listened to a number of speeches both by supporters as well as students outlining their demands on the university and their determination to "not give up and not to stop" until SOAS had disclosed its investment in corporations complicit both in Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its war on Gaza.
A final speech was given in which an activist explained that students and their supporters needed to "escalate until our demands are met" and added "we are going to show London we are going to continue (activism and protest) until our demands are met."
One of the most frequently heard chants on this and other days has been
"Disclose, Divest,
We will not stop,
We will not rest."
The students marched from SOAS to the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street where at sometime around 7.30 pm they held a die-in preventing all but emergency traffic from crossing the junction. I didn't time the length of the action, but it seemed to last for about 30 minutes.
The students' demands, as written on a two metre high placard at the encampment, were as follows
1. Disclose - Full details of all university investments
2. Divest - from companies complicit in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights - [a list of specific companies followed which included Barclays Bank, Alphabet (Google/Alphabet) and Microsoft.]
3. Terminate - the university's banking and lending arrangement with Barclays
4. Boycott - Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, including the University of Haifa
5. Commit - to supporting Palestinian education and the rebuilding of Gaza's Schools and Hospitals. Establish partnerships and exchanges with Palestinian institutions and academics. Increase scholarships for Palestinian students. Advocate for removal of restrictions for pro-Palestinian expression.
6. Guarantee - the right of students and staff to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation including in research, speech and actions.
7. Advocate - for the UK government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, to call for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
***************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for NGOs and progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
On Wednesday 15 May 2024, about 300 SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) students and their supporters gathered in front of the "Liberated Zone" Gaza solidarity encampment. An area of activists tents within the university grounds.
The event was called to mark Nakba day which commemorates the brutal ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and villages in the months after 15 May 1948 by the Israeli army and Zionist militia. Although historians point out that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land long predated 15 May 1948, and has continued ever since.
A crowd listened to a number of speeches both by supporters as well as students outlining their demands on the university and their determination to "not give up and not to stop" until SOAS had disclosed its investment in corporations complicit both in Israel's occupation of the West Bank and its war on Gaza.
A final speech was given in which an activist explained that students and their supporters needed to "escalate until our demands are met" and added "we are going to show London we are going to continue (activism and protest) until our demands are met."
One of the most frequently heard chants on this and other days has been
"Disclose, Divest,
We will not stop,
We will not rest."
The students marched from SOAS to the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street where at sometime around 7.30 pm they held a die-in preventing all but emergency traffic from crossing the junction. I didn't time the length of the action, but it seemed to last for about 30 minutes.
The students' demands, as written on a two metre high placard at the encampment, were as follows
1. Disclose - Full details of all university investments
2. Divest - from companies complicit in Israel's denial of Palestinian rights - [a list of specific companies followed which included Barclays Bank, Alphabet (Google/Alphabet) and Microsoft.]
3. Terminate - the university's banking and lending arrangement with Barclays
4. Boycott - Israeli academic institutions which are complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights, including the University of Haifa
5. Commit - to supporting Palestinian education and the rebuilding of Gaza's Schools and Hospitals. Establish partnerships and exchanges with Palestinian institutions and academics. Increase scholarships for Palestinian students. Advocate for removal of restrictions for pro-Palestinian expression.
6. Guarantee - the right of students and staff to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation including in research, speech and actions.
6. Advocate - for the UK government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, to call for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.
***************************************
A creative commons PHOTO LICENSE for COMMERCIAL USE for this photo is AVAILABLE for NGOs and progressive publications which are listed on the link below
Although this image is being posted on an attribution noncommercial share alike basis CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED, the following organisations and publications listed on the link below are also welcome to reproduce it even if it is for commercial purposes. However please publish the image on the same attribution noncommercial share alike basis. For more info or if any other organisation or other publication wishes to publish this photo on a commercial basis please email me at alisdare@gmail.com.
"Wake us from this nightmare," whispers the air,
Echoes of anguish, burdens too heavy to bear.
Children, innocent petals in the tempest's roar,
Lost in the chaos, on a desolate shore.
The drumbeats of conflict, a somber score,
Resonate through lands, where hope is no more.
Tiny hands that once held dreams untold,
Now bear the weight of stories, too tragic to be told....
"Sophie Shapiro’s Ceasefire Now (2024) can be seen as a powerful response not just to the general horrors of war, but also to the specific devastation and neglect experienced by certain countries caught in prolonged conflict. The painting’s title is an urgent demand, one that reflects the exhaustion and despair of civilians in regions like Gaza, Yemen, Sudan and Ukraine, where warfare has persisted amid insufficient international support or attention.
Shapiro’s emotionally charged style, marked by abstract forms and symbolism, evokes the psychological trauma and social fragmentation endured by those living in war zones. In this context, Ceasefire Now transcends artistic expression. It becomes a moral plea for global awareness and political accountability.
By invoking not just the call to end violence, but also drawing attention to the silence and apathy surrounding some crises, Shapiro places her work within a tradition of politically conscious art. This aligns with other artists who use their platform to confront injustice, challenge indifference and insist that peace must be more than a diplomatic slogan, it must be a global imperative." Review by J.V.
South Africa's case in The Hague argues that Israel violated the 1948 genocide convention, established in the aftermath of the Holocaust, which mandates that all countries prevent the recurrence of such crimes. It filed an 84-page document with the court detailing acts it says amount to genocide in Gaza.
Day 1
Day 2
Reactions to World Court ruling on Israel's war in Gaza - Friday 26 January 2024
♫ - Chopin - Prelude in E minor
for Flickriver - Sophie Shapiro
.