“Children like me don’t have a chance in Gaza. So many have been killed by Israel but I will be their voice.”
All images courtesy of Campaign group Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire
Over 100 Pro-Palestine demonstrations took to the streets of Haverfordwest on Saturday [20th Jan], where they staged a ‘Mock Funeral’ on Castle Square representing 24,448 Palestinians who have been killed in Israel’s War on Gaza in the last 100 days.
The protestors then marched on local Tory MP Stephen Crabb, where the dead bodies were once again laid on the street and outside his constituency office door.
Like Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Stephen Crabb has refused to condemn Israeli war crimes, even failing to condemn the filmed murder of a man carrying a white flag trying to reach safety.
Protester Ayesha Hussain stated, “it’s awful that we’ve had to come out again today because our MP Stephen Crabb has STILL refused to call for a ceasefire and stop the killing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza. It’s disgraceful that this is still allowed to happen. We won’t be going away. We will remain steadfast until Palestine is free and until Stephen Crabb grows a backbone and calls for a ceasefire!”
Since October 7th, 24,448 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza,10,400 of these were children and 7,100 women, a further 61,504 have been injured with 7,000 missing, 337 health workers, 117 journalists and 152 UN staff have been killed while 1.9 million Palestinians are now displaced with desperately limited access to food, medicines and water.
One of the organisers, Jim Scott of Stop the War Pembrokeshire, said: “What kind of world are we living in where we have to make mock up dead bodies like this for a demonstration?!”
“It is just beyond unfathomable what the people of Gaza are going through right now. Stephen Crabb & Simon Hart MP have blood on their hands. Crabb isn’t just complicit in the killings in Gaza, he called for this in Parliament in October before it even happened! He’s the Chair of the Conservative Friends of Israel and is part of their propaganda machine dehumanising innocent babies, children, women and men. This is genocide, nothing less and Crabb will be judged by history for this”
The Campaign group Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire has also begun delivering weekly open letters to Stephen Crabb. This week’s letter focussed on the Genocide case in the Hague, brought by South Africe against Israels’s war crimes, asking Stephen Crabb if he would support the ICJ ruling if the international court decides that Israel is committing a Genocide in Gaza.
Campaigners announced today that next week’s open letter to Stephen Crabb will be an invitation to meet with them and to discuss and justify his current position on the killings taking place in Palestine.
Farhana Akhtar said, “we have had to wrap white clothes around items to create make-believe shrouds to raise awareness and make a powerful statement. Sadly, it is not make-belief in Gaza! The only items coming to Gaza in surplus are shrouds and it’s abhorrent that most of these shrouds are tiny in size as Israel continues its onslaught against children! We will not stop. We will be the voice for the voiceless and we will not be deterred!’
Leading trade unionists also gave speeches at the rally, including Cerith Griffiths of the Fire Brigades Union Cymru and Mairéad Canavan a National Executive member of the NEU (National Education Union).
Canavan said: “I am supporting the demonstration because this is a human catastrophe caused by the deliberate action of the Government of Israel and is clearly a war crime and an act of genocide. The UK government has failed to call for a permanent ceasefire and continues to give unconditional support to Israel. As a teacher, I’m particularly horrified by the cost of the genocide to children. Since 7 October 2023 , at least 23,469 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 59,604 Palestinians were reportedly injured. Some 70 percent of the fatalities are women and children.”
Since October 7, local demonstrations have repeatedly marched on Stephen Crabb’s constituency office as well as targeting Marks & Spencer and Barclays bank over their support for Israel’s war and occupation in Palestine. Weekly vigils have also been held.
Mariam Akhtar, a young person who attended the protest, told us: “Children like me don’t have a chance in Gaza. So many have been killed by Israel but I will be their voice. I will protest and call for this violence to end. Me and many others again ask our MP to be kind and to be a human and stand up for humanity.
“We ask him to please please call a ceasefire and stand with innocent children. It’s so sad to me that brown lives don’t seem to matter but when a white country like the Ukraine is occupied, everyone including us brown people stand against the oppressors and occupiers and we stand with humanity but our leaders are so evil that they won’t even call for the killing to stop.”
Organisers say it is clear that Israel wants to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.
“Biden, Netanyahu, Sunak, Starmer and our own MP’s; Stephen Crabb & Simon Hart are complicit in this war crime. We are rallying to send a clear message from Pembrokeshire to Crabb & Hart that this genocide must stop. We are rising up for Palestine and we are certainly not going away as Crabb has been claiming.”
