‘Armistice Day means ceasefire’: voices of those heading to London’s proPalestine march People express trepidation, defiance and a feeling they cannot stand by and do nothing about the ‘horrific destruction’
cipation was motivated in no small part by the government’s attempts to ban it. “Our home secretary’s attempt to characterise [these demonstrations] as ‘hate marches’, and to associate a clear call for peace and an end to indiscriminate bloodshed with sympathy for terrorism … is despicable, and it is what will get this 64-year-old out on the street for the first time in decades,” Rawlinson said. He said he was “troubled by the extent to
Rishi Sunak has said a major pro-Palestine
I feel it is imperative to add my voice to the
which [Israel’s response] is being defended
march will go ahead on Armistice Day and
millions of British people who are against this
by pundits and politicians across the political
that people have the “right to peacefully
war,” she said.
spectrum.”
protest”, after an emergency meeting with the
Lydia Samuels, 36, will be attending her fourth
But some are attending Saturday’s demons-
Metropolitan police commissioner, though he
Palestine march in recent weeks this weekend,
tration with a feeling of trepidation. “I am
described the plans as “disrespectful”.
holding homemade placards reading “Jewish
worried about attending the march because I
and for a free Palestine” and “Jews say cea-
am aware that in the complex and fragmen-
After the row over holding the protest on
sefire now”. She characterised her personal
ted political environment around this conflict
Armistice Day, in which the government piled
experiences at the demonstrations calling for
there is a real danger of my statement of
pressure on the police to stop Saturday’s
a ceasefire as positive. “People have embraced
protest calling for a ceasefire being unwittin-
march in London, Marija Carter, 26, viewed the
me enthusiastically and been moved by my
gly aligned to, or co-opted by, groups whose
calls for a ban as somewhat ironic but deeply
presence, often telling me so,” the musician
objectives I in no way support or endorse,”
concerning.
from London said. “Over the last few weeks I
said Fred Merttens, 46, adding that it would
“I am amused and appalled by the insistence
see more and more Jews present.”
be the first march he has attended since the
that Armistice Day is the wrong time to call
After Rishi Sunak vowed to hold the Metro-
outbreak of the recent conflict.
for an armistice,” the lawyer in London said.
politan police commissioner, Mark Rowley,
“It would not be the people who died in war
accountable for refusing to ban the march,
Merttens, a policy researcher from Oxford, said
who would suffer any offence that hundreds of
Samuels was clear: “It’s Armistice Day, which
he felt wary of bringing his children because
thousands of free Londoners call for less war.”
means ceasefire. It feels perverse to cancel a
he felt there was a “potential risk” of violence
peace march on a day about peace.”
on the day, “which is being actively stoked by some of our own politicians and newspapers
Amid a growing schism within Labour over the party’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict
Samuels was among 200 British Jews who
making inflammatory and divisive remarks”.
that has seen its shadow levelling up minister
attended a vigil organised by Na’amod UK, a
But he said this would not stop him from mar-
resign and 15 other frontbenchers call for a
leftwing Jewish organisation that campaigns
ching. “I simply cannot stand by while my own
ceasefire or share demands for one, Carter
against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian te-
government does not do everything it can to
sees a “turning point”.
rritory, on Monday. “We observed shloshim, the
stop the horrific destruction of Gaza and the
“It may become the defining moment of our
traditional ceremony of 30 days of mourning.
lives of the 2.2 million people who live there,
generation. I’m a member of the Labour party
We said prayers and read testimonies and
half of whom are children,” he said, acknowle-
because my local branch is wonderful, yet I do
sang songs,” she said of the vigil to remember
dging the complexity of a conflict with “no
not even know if I can make myself vote for
the 1,400 Israelis killed by Hamas’s attack and
simple solutions”.
Starmer any more, and many of my friends will
the more than 10,000 Palestinians killed by
He said: “Such peaceful protest is a hard-won
not. I will probably still do because I’m petri-
Israel’s response.
democratic right that our current government
fied of another Tory term, but I am completely
While others have been a constant presence
is doing everything they can to roll back.”
disillusioned.”
at marches, for some, this Saturday will be the first time they have taken part. Jack Rawlin-
Many will travel to the capital to make their voices heard on Saturday as demands for a ceasefire intensify. Sidra Butt-Mughal, 38, will be making the trip from Oxfordshire with her husband and their two-year-old and five-yearold children to take part. Butt-Mughal, whose brother-in-law is Palestinian American, was one of scores who told the Guardian why they planned to take to the streets on Saturday, saying she felt devastated by the images coming out of Gaza. “We are a proud British-Muslim family … we feel obligated to voice our concerns about this unjust war,” the research consultant said, adding that it would be the third protest she had attended, including a smaller one in Reading. “As a mother with very young children, I’m very affected – I imagine all those children, Israeli or Palestinian, to be like my children.
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son, 64, a train driver in London, said his parti-
By Clea Skopeliti 09. November 2023