Armistice Day Protests – As we speak I hope to be photographing an enormous protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and peace within the Center East because it makes its means from Hyde Park to the US Embassy. It’s an occasion some Tory politicians have tried to arouse controversy round, aided by a few of the media of their lies. Armistice Day has at all times been an event for protests for peace and making it out as some large nationwide celebration all of us share in is unfaithful as this put up exhibits.
Each the BBC and the Tories seized on the truth that some individuals at a protest in London shouted ‘Jihad!’ however lie in saying it was an offshoot from the large march going down in London calling for peace and justice for Palestine.
It’s a lie that the BBC continues to allow them to promulgate with out query, though their journalists should certainly know that this was at a wholly separate protest organised by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, an Islamic fundamentalist political organisation devoted to the institution of an Islamic caliphate, whose lead banner at their protest learn “Muslim Armies! Rescue the Individuals of Palestine!”.
I’ve photographed many protests by Hizb ut-Tahrir in London since I first got here throughout them in 2004 and they’re very completely different and entirley separate from these organised by mainstream Muslim organisations, Cease The Struggle, CND and the others now main the protests by tons of of 1000’s throughout the nation calling for an finish to the killing of civilians – whether or not Palestinian or Israelis – in Palestine and Israel. Most are significantly enraged by the killing of so many youngsters in Gaza by air strikes which Israel claims are focused, however are focused on locations the place many individuals dwell and so die in them.
I feel most of us who march – and the various extra who assist the marches however are unable to attend – need peace and the justice that may solely come if there’s a thriving nation the place Palestinians can dwell regular lives in peace and never underneath army rule and an apartheid regime.
In all probability that may solely come about with a two-state answer and an enormous world help programme to revive the unimaginable injury in Gaza in addition to establishing rational borders for Palestine with the elimination of lots of the unlawful settlements.
I grew up in a largely working class space on the outskirts of London within the Nineteen Fifties, after which I feel it was true that nearly the entire of the nation paused to have fun and commemorate the armistice, becoming a member of in with the minute’s silence in colleges, outlets, works and workplaces and visitors on the roads coming to a halt.
However even then comparatively few joined within the army model parades on Remembrance Sunday, with most of my buddy’s dad and mom who had fought in WW2 having had greater than sufficient of that type of factor. My attendance was obligatory as a Wolf Cub and Boy Scout however I resented it and my freezing legs as chilly November winds blew up my shorts – and the derision from buddies who weren’t members. And by the point I used to be a Senior Scout we collectively refused to participate.
The concept Armistice Day will not be an appropriate day for a peaceable protest calling for an finish to the preventing and peace within the Center East appears to me to be past absurd – but once more is taken significantly and promoted by the BBC. Armistice Day has I feel at all times seen protests for peace – and November eleventh 2006 was no exception.
On that day I started on Park Lane, the place there was a short ceremony in entrance of the sculpture commemorating animals who died in struggle within the central space there at 11 am. There have been solely a small group there, sporting poppies they described as purple, although to me they appeared extra lilac or mauve. In 2018, the Peace Pledge Union bought 122,385 white poppies: greater than any yr since white poppies had been first worn in 1933, and plenty of preserve their white poppies to put on in following years, as in contrast to the purple poppies their sale will not be meant to lift funds however they’re merely worn as an emblem of remembrance and peace.
I moved on to Grosvenor Sq. and the US Embassy the place Faculty College students In opposition to The Struggle had scheduled a ‘die-in’. Sadly solely round 20 had turned up for it – in all probability now many work on Saturdays or desire to take pleasure in a lie-in at house.
One other brief stroll took me to Marks & Spencer on Oxford Road, the place a protest was going down as part of the fourth Worldwide Week of Motion in opposition to the Apartheid Wall in Palestine.
Combat Racism, Combat Imperialism who had organised this occasion additionally maintain common vigils exterior M&S each Thursday night, calling for a boycott of the corporate as a part of a wider Boycott Israel marketing campaign. M&S promote items together with these coming illegally from the occupied territories of Palestine and provides monetary and ethical assist to Israel.
Faculty College students In opposition to The Struggle got here from the US Embassy to hitch them and staged their die-in on the vast pavement in entrance of M&S. This definitely generated quite a lot of consideration they usually made some brief speeches to the the crowds milling previous M&S earlier than marching off down Oxford Road with their megaphones and banner. They staged a second ‘die-in’ additional down the road, once more attracting the eye of customers, though maybe surprisingly, not the police none of whom gave the impression to be round.
I went on to Trafalgar Sq. the place I hoped to {photograph} the fountains full of purple poppies, however I arrived a little bit late to discover a man in waders fishing them out with a shrimp web. It was weird if not surreal, though not fairly what I’d been hoping for.
My major occasion of the day was going down on Whitehall, on the Cenotaph. Not the army parade ‘on the eleventh hour‘ which I had refused to cowl, however a commemoration by a few of the households of servicemen killed in Iraq.
Led by a piper they marched solemnly to face in entrance of it, whereas they got here as much as learn out the names of the 121 useless British servicemen killed within the Iraq struggle. A small number of names of Iraqi civilians killed was additionally learn out. It’s tough to estimate the precise quantity who’ve died, and extra deaths have occured since 2006. The US Brown College Watson Institute now states “we all know that between 280,771-315,190 have died from direct struggle associated violence brought on by the U.S., its allies, the Iraqi army and police, and opposition forces from the time of the invasion by March 2023.”
A deputation then took a letter in to Downing Road for Prime Minister Tony Blair who had misled parliament and ignored the most important protest ever seen within the UK to take the nation right into a misguided invasion along with the USA.
Amongst these collaborating in what was an especially shifting ceremony had been Rose Light of Army Households In opposition to The Struggle, and others who’ve misplaced sons or companions in Iraq, together with Ann Lawrence, Roger Bacon, Natasha Mclellan, Maureen Bacon in addition to Lance Corporal George Solomou, from the London Regiment of the Territorial Military who refused to go to combat in Iraq. Households of some serving troopers additionally took half.
Additionally there and supporting the occasion amongst others had been Kate Hudson of CND, Yvonne Ridley and Lindsey German of Respect and Cease The Struggle, dressmaker Katherine Hamnett, and Jeremy Corbyn MP.
This was an occasion that attracted appreciable media consideration; there’s a delicate stability between intruding on non-public grief, however these there had chosen to make their grief public, and we needed to file it for them.
Extra Footage on My London Dairy – Scroll down the web page there for hyperlinks.
Tags: animals in struggle, apartheid, apartheid state, apartheid wall, Armistice Day, boycott, Boycott Israel, CND, die-in, downing road, ead British servicemen, Combat Imperialism, Combat RAcism, Free Palestine, Gaza, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Iraq struggle, Islamic caliphate, Jeremy Corbyn, Jihad, Kate Hudson, killing of civilians, London, M&S, march, Marks & Spencer, army ceremonies, army occupation, Oxford St, Palestine, Palestinians, peace, Peace and Justice, peaceable protest, peter Marshall, protest, purple poppies, purple poppies, Remembrance Sunday, Rose Light, college college students, Faculty College students In opposition to The Struggle, Cease the Struggle, Tony Blair, Trafalgar Sq., US Embassy, West financial institution, white poppies
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