One child dies in Gaza every 15 minutes... the protests continue 21 October 2023

Welcome. It's so good to see so many people here again. I'm Kate Ramsden, from SPSC Aberdeen and it is my privilege to chair this solidarity demo with Gaza.

Because what is happening in Gaza is unbearable

For all of us who care about human rights

For all of us who value every human life equally

And for the avoidance of doubt I do not include Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer amongst us

Their support for Israel shames us all

But if it’s unbearable for us what must it be like for the people living in Gaza

For the people dying in Gaza – over 4000 civilians since this Israeli bombardment began

For the people mourning in Gaza for their families, friends, colleagues, neighbours, and God help us, for their children – one killed every 15 minutes since this began

Think about that. In the time we are here, 4 more children will die in Gaza

For the people displaced in Gaza

For the people made homeless in Gaza

For the people starving in Gaza, deprived of water, food, fuel and medicines in the most brutal of collective punishments – a war crime

Whilst the world looks on and the west is complicit

It’s heartbreaking and it’s despicable

We condemn the bombing of the Al Ahli hospital with such a terrible loss of life, including many who sought shelter there after being displaced from the north by Israeli edict

And do not believe the lies of Israel and its allies about who is responsible

We know where the guilt lies!

Yet the reporting by western media continues with their bias towards Israel – their appalling double standards

Then there’s the murders of over 100 Palestinians in the West Bank.

Hamas is the justification given by Israel for the mass killings in Gaza BUT there is NO Hamas on the West Bank

Yet Israel continues to kill with impunity

This is not war – this is genocide – ethnic cleansing - and the world looks on and watches

And the west supports Israel’s right to defend itself

But to quote Matt Carthy of Sinn Fein whose speech in the Irish parliament was so powerful.

How come we never hear the words “Palestine has a right to defend itself.”

Israel has breached international law for generations – yet we hear none of that from Western governments

But of course we all know that the Palestinians cannot defend themselves. Not against one of the most powerful military forces in the world that is backed up by even more powerful military forces.

The truth is that the people of Palestine need the international community to say stop

We need countries across the world, including our own, to stand up and demand Israel stop the bombings, the siege and the slaughter of innocent civilians and children

Stop the blockade, stop the collective punishment, stop the apartheid

Stop the war crimes, stop the genocide.

That is what we are doing here today. That is why we have come together

I can no longer give voice to my Palestinian friends

They are still alive but can send only brief messages to let me know this.

All have lost people they know and care about to this terrible slaughter

So we must be their voices

We must tell the world that the oppression of the Palestinians, the bombing of Gaza, the slaughter of innocents, the terrible collective punishment of being denied even basics like food water and medicines has to end. We must demand a ceasefire – we must demand an end to the genocide. And we must shame the west into defending the lives of the Palestinians.