Protests across Britain against Israel’s aid flotilla kidnapping

Protesters outside Downing Street

Emergency protests took place across Britain, raging against Israel’s kidnapping of activists on the aid flotilla.

At Downing Street, over 1,500 people rallied in an emergency protest organised by Soas student encampment for Palestine.

Prior to the evening demonstrations, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the foreign office in Whitehall, expressing anger at Israel’s attacks and Labour’s ongoing complicity. Police tried to suppress the protests, but it continued on for hours.

“It is our responsibility to speak up today for the 12 activists Israel has taken hostage in the flotilla,”  one student told the rally.

“How can it be that civilians on a small boat have shown more courage and humanity than our entire government?”

She slammed global institutions for “enforcing so-called statements that are meaningless statements”, saying they are “designed to enforce the status quo of the West to enforce its geopolitical interests”.

“We should never count on pathetic and complicit institutions. We must take the matter of our freedom into our hands.”

One protester told Socialist Worker that Israel stopping and capturing the flotilla was “grim but predictable”.

“Of course Israel was going to stop the boat. We’re dealing with a regime that tries to starve innocent people to death and then murders them at aid points.

“But it’s ridiculous that Israeli troops boarded the ship, pepper sprayed them, and then released propaganda videos to show the opposite,” they added.

“Lies, murder and genocide—that’s all Israel is. People see that now.”

Sarah, from the Women of Colour Global Network, said, “The flotilla represents all of us, so we stand with them as we stand with the people of Gaza.

“We won’t stop until there’s justice in Gaza and across Palestine. This is a genocide, not only against Gaza, but against Palestine and the world,” she said.

“But we know the apartheid in South Africa was overthrown by an international movement. When we say in our millions and billions we are all Palestinians, we mean it.”

The protest was also standing in solidarity with the dock workers in Italy, France and Belgium who have refused to handle Israeli weapons.

“It’s exactly what we need,” Emran told Socialist Worker. “What is on a ship today kills Palestinians tomorrow.

Emran said that “it’s all part of a global movement”. “Workers take action, people demonstrate—this is what will win. Our governments, they are an obstacle to that. We need to shut Israel down ourselves—there’s no other option.”

Jewish anti-Zionist Sophia Beach said, “This weekend, three boats were sailing not to Gaza but to Israel, not carrying aid but carrying weapons of war, and were stopped. They were stopped by workers.

“We say solidarity with docker workers.

“Keir Starmer has the blood of Palestinians on his hands, the blood of disabled people when he takes benefits, bloods on trans+ people for the attacks on them.”

Meanwhile, other protests raged across Britain. In Manchester, Palestine activists occupied Manchester Picadilly, filling the train station with drums, flags and chants. And in Leeds, 200 activists demonstrated in Leeds Trinity shopping centre.

Around 200 activists in Brighton marched through the city centre. Hundreds of protesters rallied in Sheffield, and in Nottingham around 300 protesters rallied with a screen showing a film of the flotilla itself.  

In Liverpool, hundreds came out in support of Palestine and in Oxford around 50 people rallied, with speakers urging people to join upcoming actions.

“What’s happening in Palestine affects the whole world,” one activist from Health Workers for Palestine told the rally.

“Our government has tied our hands,” she said. “They’ve made it a critical task to object to ethnic cleansing.”

“We must continue to be strong, to dig deep and to fight united. Sexual orientation, ethnicity—never let any of these things divide us because that’s what they want. Don’t let anything stand in the way of liberation.”

Israel has proved that it will not stop until Palestine is crushed. Empty criticism and simple statements condemning Israel are not enough as Britain continues to arm Israel.

Shut down the arms factories and shut down the Zionist death machine. Join the Palestine Solidarity Campaign action outside arms factories on Tuesday 17 June.