- Cardiff protest will be the 10th in a row calling for a Gaza ceasefire, with a specific focus this week on BDS.
- Victory for boycott movement after Puma forced to ditched sponsorship of the Israel football association
- Campaigners in Barry show pictures of Palestininans killed by Israel to their MP, but he responds by saying that Israel “has a right to defend itself.”
News. Cover image: Cardiff Palestine protest, Sat 9th Dec, by Tom Davies.
Palestine solidarity campaigners in Wales will ramp up their efforts to boycott Israel this weekend with a march and rally in Cardiff on Saturday.
The march and rally will kick off at 12 noon from the Nye Bevan Statue on Queen St, Cardiff, before heading to the central library for more speeches. Including from Palestinians themselves.
The march comes in the aftermath of a major victory for the movement this week.
The third biggest sportswear brand worldwide, Puma, has dropped its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association following huge pressure from campaigners over many years.
Veteran campaigner and Wales-based Honorary President of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Betty Hunter, said: “After five years, Puma bowing to relentless pressure shows boycott campaigning can work. We won’t be satisfied until others still trading with Israel also decide to join us in isolating apartheid Israel, however.”
Protesters will specifically be calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, supermarkets not to stock Israeli goods and disinvestment from arms companies by Barclays Bank, a major supporter of the arms trade with Israel.
Saturday will be the 10th week in a row that protesters have marched through the Welsh capital, in demonstrations that have seen thousands take to the streets against the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.
Neezo, from Stand up for Palestine, who have been organising the weekly protests, said, “It’s important now more than ever for people to raise their voices for Palestine.”
“Whilst our government supports the genocide the people of Wales and the UK stand with the oppressed people all around the world.”
At least 18,608 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said as many as 50,594 others were also injured in the onslaught.
“A large number of victims remain under the rubble and on the roads,” he said during a press conference.
Over 10,000 children have also been killed by the Israeli milltay attacks, in what experts have called a genocide. The US,UK and western powers continue to back Israel.
In response a huge global movement against Israeli apartheid has emerged, with unprecedented levels of Palestine solidarity action taking place in Wales and elsewhere.
Last week, the Welsh singer Charlotte Church addressed the march for Palestine in Cardiff and urged people to boycott Israel.
“We’ve got a whole toolbox of resistance,” she said, urging people to take to the streets in greater numbers.
“We will boycott more, we will make your companies fail until you listen to us.”
The organisers and supporters of the march tomorrow include Cardiff PSC, the Muslim Council for Wales, Black Lives Matter, Stand up for Palestine, Palestine Social Club, Stop the War and Syrian Welsh Soc.
Meanwhile, Palestine campaigners in Barry have targeted their MP, Tory Alun Cairns and urged him to back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Representatives of the Green Party and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign forced Mr Cairn into meeting them in his Barry office on Thursday 14th December.
“We are united in expressing our anger at the failure of the UK Government to call for a ceasefire as 153 other countries have done,” said Sheree Conibear, who founded the Barry branch of the PSC with Amjab Salhab.
“We asked Alun Cairns to back calls for a ceasefire and to sign the Parliamentary Early Day Motion expressing concern at the Government’s position on the UN Security Council resolution.”
“We also wanted him to exert pressure on the UK Government to stop sending arms to Israel. He refused to do either. He also refused to attend a meeting in the Vale to explain his position to his constituents. We found his response disappointing in the extreme, especially as the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, Jonathan Edwards, has called for a ceasefire.”
One activist, Amjab showed the MP pictures of some of the 18,608 Palestinians killed, which includes many babies and children. “We appealed to him as a father,” he said. “But his response was that the situation was complicated and Israel has a right to defend itself.”
Amjab added that Mr Cairns was presented with the figures of casualties released by the Ministry of Gaza and the World Health Organisation and his reply was that he was unsure of the figures.
