Statement - 25.02.24

Saturday 24th February: hundreds of Palestine Solidarity Movement supporters from the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole area, as well as many from around our conurbation, from rural Dorset and from Hampshire, marched through Bournemouth town centre to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a permanent end to the brutal occupation of Gaza and The West Bank. They joined with supporters from across the globe who marched today in the twentieth week of illegal collective punishment waged by Israel since October 7th.

We march today for the children of Gaza. Over 14,000 have been murdered by Israel in the last four and a half months. Every one of them innocent. Every death a tragedy.

Of those who survive, thousands have been orphaned, many have suffered amputations and other life changing injuries, and all are traumatised. The children of Gaza deserve the same opportunities to thrive that all children do. Instead, they are crammed into makeshift shelters with little or no access to sanitation and healthcare. Their homes, schools, playgrounds & their entire neighbourhoods have been levelled. The Palestinian people & their children are slowly starving, some so hungry they have started eating animal feed and grass. So thirsty, that they are drinking polluted sea water. All of this while the bombs still fall on them and the snipers still fire at them.

We reject the narrative that we cannot do anything to help the children of Gaza & their families. We believe everyone with a heart wants to do whatever they possibly can. The British government must call for an immediate ceasefire. They can exert influence on the government of Israel through withdrawal of support; boycott; divestment & the imposition of sanctions. They can also reinstate funding to UNWRA for vital aid to Gaza.

The government of Israel has refused to recognise international law and the jurisdiction of those whose role it is to enact it. They must therefore be treated as the pariah state that they are. We are here to call on our elected representatives to take this action now, so that no more children are killed.

We have been called thugs, mobs and terrorists by our own government, yet this couldn’t be further from the truth. We are simply calling for an end to violence and for peace, freedom and justice for a people who have been attacked, imprisoned, silenced and subjugated for decades. Among other Western governments, it is our government who are the threat as they have support this brutal occupation and apartheid regime, and are complicit in this genocide against the Palestinian people. They are guilty, if indirectly, as the government of Israel are, directly, in the murder of many thousands of Palestinians.

Our government is a threat to the British people too, think of their dangerous handling of Covid-19; their dismantling of our National Health Service; underfunding of vital services such as social care and education; their failure to act against climate change; and their constant lies and corruption. The British government inflicts suffering and even death on the people it is duty-bound to serve, yet they try to demonise us when we dare to ask questions and to hold them to account.

We will not be intimidated. We will continue to do what is morally right. We ask you to join us, and the global community, in calling for peace and freedom for the people of Palestine. No one is free unless we all are.