Worldwide protests call for Gaza cease-fire
Londoners urge end to UK complicity in Israel’s decades-long oppression
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Saturday in several major cities around the world to show solidarity with Palestinians and call for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
In Britain’s capital, London, tens of thousands of protesters marched in central city to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. The march, from Hyde Park Corner to the US Embassy, was the 10th pro-Palestinian march in central London since Israel started its onslaught on Gaza following the October 7 attacks by the Hamas resistance group.
“We will continue to protest until a cease-fire is called, and until there is an end to all UK complicity with Israel’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people,” march organizer Ben Jamal said ahead of the protest.
Singer Charlotte Church was seen at the front of the march as it set off.
The Welsh singer, who has been a vocal campaigner, said she had joined to “show solidarity” with Palestinians “for all that they are suffering through”.
Israel’s military launched an air and ground strike on the Gaza Strip after Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel on October 7, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others were taken captive. Israel has killed nearly 31,000 people in Gaza since then.
The conflict has created a growing humanitarian crisis in the territory and the UN has warned that famine in Gaza is “almost inevitable”.
At least 576,000 people across the Gaza Strip – one quarter of the population – are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity, and one in six children under the age of two in the north are suffering from acute malnutrition, a senior UN aid official warned last week.
Israel’s president not
welcome in Amsterdam
In Netherlands’ capital Amsterdam, where Dutch King Willem-Alexander officially opened the country’s first Holocaust Museum on Sunday, demonstrators angry at Israel’s military campaign in Gaza protested against the regime’s President Isaac Herzog, who also addressed the ceremony.
Thousands gathered waving Palestinian flags and banners, and shouting “Never Again Is Now,” a reference to their belief Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory.
They booed and shouted slogans as the dignitaries arrived at the museum.
“There’s only one place for him [president of Israel] here and that’s the ICC,” said Estelle Jilissen, a 25-year-old consultant, referring to the International Criminal Court that tries suspected war criminals.
“A lot of Jewish people are against his arrival here as well because the pain of their ancestors, the suffering of their ancestors, is being smeared by this president’s arrival,” said Jilissen.
New York demonstration
In the US, thousands of pro-Palestine protesters flooded the streets of New York as part of a demonstration on International Women’s Day, which saw them storm the Oculus near the World Trade Center.
Footage shows the demonstrators clutching Palestinian flags, shouting and cheering after they successfully squeeze into the shopping center on Friday.
Once inside, they formed a drumming circle and waved banners which read: “30, 878 dead and Joe is eating ice cream,” in reference to the president nonchalantly slurping on an ice cream cone while being grilled about the situation between Israel and Gaza recently.
Rallies in Bosnia, Serbia
Meanwhile, thousands gathered in the capitals of Western Balkan countries to show support for Palestine amid an intensified Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
People in Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered with Palestinian flags in their hands in front of the public fountain in Bascarsija in Sarajevo.
Meanwhile, hundreds participated in protests in Serbia’s Novi Pazar, where most Muslims reside.
Protesters came together with banners painted in red, symbolizing blood, and created a human text message: “Free Gaza”.
Similar protests were also held in Calgary, Canada; Rome, Italy; and Paris, France.