Israel’s devasting military assault on Gaza has now killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, 70% of them women and children, with thousands more missing, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes. Every weekend, thousands of people attend marches in London; across the nation, there have been protests in dozens of towns and cities. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the largest Palestine solidarity organisation in Europe, has been at the forefront of these actions, and support for our work has mushroomed. Yet as public pressure has built for a ceasefire, the efforts to repress these calls have accelerated, too.
I made a recent speech calling for people to peacefully lobby their MPs inside parliament. I said that so many protesters would arrive that parliament would have to lock its doors. But this was reframed in national media as a call for violent insurrection. Peaceful but loud and vigorous protests at council meetings and outside MPs’ offices have been characterised as acts of physical intimidation. Now we have Lord Walney, a politician with a track record of unabashed support for Israel, calling for political leaders to ban any contact between MPs or councillors and members of the PSC. Rishi Sunak has told us he will carefully consider these proposals. We must resist this political desire to shield Israel from accountability and from the charge of genocide, and attempts to suppress people’s right to protest, manifested in the repressive legislation passed by this government.
