At least 17 people, including a Palestinian girl aged only 12 and her mother, have been arrested in Cardiff and Swansea as police target those protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza being committed by Israel and the West.
On Monday, an emergency protest was held in Cardiff to raise the alarm over the escalating military assault on the city of Rafah in Gaza, where hundreds sheltering in designated safe zones, including children, have been killed by Israel in the past week.
Video released by BLM Cardiff on social media appears to show a group of around 8 police officers swooping in to arrest a man as he shouts ‘Free, Free, Palestine’ into a megaphone. As they forcibly drag him away, others immediately crowd round and demand the police release him.
The arrest of the leading activist known as Neezo, who is also disabled, came as a ‘sit down’ protest on the junction of Park Place and Boulevard de Nantes near Cardiff City Centre drew to a close and people had started to disperse.
Immediately following the incident, over 100 supporters gathered at Cardiff Bay Police Station and demanded his release.
According to a press release sent by Gweithred Palesteina, a smaller group of supporters then sat down and occupied the reception of the police station, some with blankets, flasks and camping chairs.
One activist who was there told voice.wales that chants of ‘Free Neezo Now’ rang out from within the police station and that the mood was defiant.
Just before midnight, police moved in and arrested the seated protesters one by one. Video footage shared on social media shows some being dragged out along the floor.
Campaigners were also targeted in Swansea. According to the press release, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police raided a house and arrested a 12 year old Palestinian girl and her mother.
Protesters in Cardiff had initially responded to a call for an emergency protest for Rafah by a coalition of groups including Palestinian Forum in Britain, Cardiff Stop the War, Black Lives Matter Cardiff and Vale, Stand Up for Palestine, and Cymru Students for Palestine.
Last week a refugee camp in Southern Gaza was bombed by Israel and according to BBC reports over 45-50 people were killed, including at least 8 children.
Speakers accused the UK government of complicity in the ongoing genocide. Also at the protest were students from the Cardiff University encampment, which was established 3 weeks ago. Students, who have set up tents on the lawn of Cardiff University Main Building, are calling for the university disclose its ties to Israel linked investments, divest from companies active in the genocide, and support Palestinian education programmes and students.
Similar encampments have been set up at Swansea, Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities and have received support from university staff.
Hadeel, a 20-year-old Palestinian who was born in Cardiff and who has family in the West Bank was at Cardiff Bay Police station when the arrests took place.
“I was sitting on the floor with my arms linked to my friends in a line when the police made another line behind us and started kicking us forward,” they said. “They were grabbing and pulling any part of us they could, hair, arms anything. It was painful, I was screaming at them “You’re hurting us. I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.”
“There was a mixed-race guy with dreadlocks next to me and they were much more violent with him, twisting him. I thought his arm was going to snap.”
Sofia, a 22-year-old student at Cardiff University, said, “They grabbed my hair, and ripped my earring out. I could clearly see the racial profiling. I was in front of my friend who wears a hijab, and they were reaching around behind me to get at her. They pushed me to the ground and pushed someone else on top of me and arrested a Palestinian girl. She wasn’t even with the other protesters. She was outside the police station.”
It is not the first time South Wales Police have been accused of racism, with the case of the Cardiff 5 in the late eighties and nineties, and more recently the death of Mohamud Hassan in 2021.
Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, one of the groups behind the protest yesterday, said in a statement:
“We are now at a crisis and a crossroads in our democracy. The majority of the public, both in Britain and internationally, are for an immediate ceasefire. Yet we know whoever wins the election, both parties have greenlit what the International Court of Justice believes is a plausible case of genocide.
“People are feeling they have to escalate the action as Israel escalates its attacks on Rafah, the terrible atrocities, the bombing of refugees, that’s why we came out here. Many members of the public will say ‘what does this have to do with us?’ but obviously our government heavily arms Israel and we know that if western governments like the United States Government particularly, and its ally the United Kingdom, took meaningful action such as sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel, we could stop the killing tomorrow.”
As Israel’s relentless bombing of civilians in Gaza continues into its eight month, Cardiff has seen tens of thousands take to the streets in protest.
Protests have been loud and occasionally disrupted traffic, but overwhelmingly peaceful and non violent. However the decision to arrest one of the figureheads of the movement has created a major escalation and will be seen as an affront against all those demanding an immediate ceasefire and end to the unimaginable suffering of Palestinians.
At least 36,439 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since October 7, with over 82,000 injured and thousands still missing, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
Over the weekend, Israel’s forced starvation caused the deaths of two more children in Central Gaza, after all aid routes into the country have been blocked.
A harrowing video on the Al Jazeera website shows in graphic detail this forced starvation and the decaying bodies of children who cannot eat due to the blockade.
These are the horrors that activists are protesting against, a cause for which many are increasingly prepared to be arrested for.
