Gaza genocide - we will never look away

As we do every Saturday, citizens of the North East turned out to protest the genocide in Gaza and to demand an end to the UK government complicity in it through supplying arms to Israel. Also to bear witness to the atrocities and the brutality of the Israeli government and the IDF. 

I wanted to post my speech from today's Gaza demo as it includes the moving and powerful words of my Facebook friend Samir, who is living in Gaza amidst the genocide.

It was also the first demo since a direct action group was proscribed as terrorists and comes as almost 600 Gazans have been murdered trying to get food aid.

"Kate Ramsden, SPSC

It has been some week. We are officially through the looking glass, where those that criticise genocide, and those that take action to end the UK government’s complicity in genocide - are the ones facing terrorism charges.

While those that commit genocide – Israel; the IDF – are home free – they pull the strings and like Pinocchio, our government jumps

Where chanting “Death to the IDF” – a brutal military organisation that every day is murdering innocent citizens and children, for God’s sake and targeting medics and journalists with utter impunity – is deemed antisemitic. I mean what?

Many of us here will have watched Doctors Under Fire, bravely shown by Channel 4 whilst the BBC – that mouthpiece for Israel – refused to screen it.

It was harrowing but showed, without any doubt, what most of us here have always known – that the IDF is targeting medics and medical facilities in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention – a war crime.

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

Gaza solidarity protest 14 October 2023 - And so it begins...

My name is Kate Ramsden and I’m a member of Aberdeen Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I have the privilege of chairing this event today.

Welcome to this Call to Action in solidarity with the people of Palestine and specifically the people of Gaza, under such terrible attacks from the state of Israel with the loss of so many lives, many of them children

This is not the first time we have gathered in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Gaza

Over many many years, the people of the North East of Scotland have come together to bear witness to the ongoing oppression, killings, occupation and state terrorism by the government of Israel and to give Palestinians a voice

Because the events of last weekend, tragic though they are, have not come out of nowhere. The killing of innocent civilians has been going on for many years – only those innocents have been Palestinian.

There has been a silent slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children by the state of Israel since the Nakba but growing in intensity over recent years

The people of Palestine have been oppressed and yes, terrorised by Israel, with home invasions, the taking of Palestinian land, restrictions on work and travel, the imprisonment of their people, including their children, the siege of Gaza, frequent bombardments and the killing of civilians.

Even before the terrible bombardments of this past week, this had been the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2014.

This oppression has been supported and also masked by Western governments including our own, who bear massive responsibility for it. Our government has continued to sell arms to Israel and has totally failed to call them out for their oppression of the people of Palestine.

One of the most grievous things about the situation today is how the media and politicians describe the tragic killings of Israeli civilians and children, when they have been all but completely silent on the murders of Palestinian civilians and children by the Israeli army and Police and through settler violence.

There are huge double standards at work here and there always were

That is why it is so important for us to come together here today to give Palestinians, to give Gazans a voice.

Gaza Solidarity Protests Aberdeen Introduction

As an active member of Scottish Palestine Solidarity, Aberdeen I've been actively involved in organising and often chairing the Gaza Solidarity protests, calling for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide, as Israel responded to attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023 with its terrible and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, killing more and more civilians and children each passing day, whilst the world has looked on.

My introductory comments to these protests have become an  account of the carnage in Gaza week on week, as the world has looked on and failed to end Israel's massacre of the population through air assaults and their collective punishment of withholding food, water, medicines and fuel. They have referenced Israel's war crimes in real time, and the dismal failure of our Westminster government and the Labour leadership to call for a ceasefire, instead greenlighting Israel's war crimes.

I've decided to publish them on this blog, in part to archive them for myself, and in part to keep this account live for as long as the carnage in Gaza continues, and as an account for posterity when the day comes, as surely it must, when this is over. It may end but it must never be forgotten.

Come along to SPSC's online event and find out how you can support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

ATUC is supporting a series of events organised by Scottish Palestine Solidaroty Campaign (SPSC) Aberdeen, focused on Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS). 

We are urging all our delegates, associates, family and friends to get along to the first event on Zoom on Thursday 27th October 2021 from 6.30-8pm. 

You can find out more by clicking HERE And you can register on Eventbrite HERE

The series will explore the divestment campaign against Caterpillar (via HSBC) and Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes, IHRA (Right to BDS), Puma and sport apartheid.

The first event is the re-launch of our divestment campaign against Caterpillar (via HSBC) and Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes.

Colin Clark MP's reply to my concerns on the detention and treatment of Palestinian minors

I have twice now written to my MP, Colin Clark, who is a member of the Conservative Party  about issues relating to Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people and both times I have been very unhappy with his response. In fact I was so appalled by his response to my letter on Palestinian child prisoners that I wrote back to him about it.

It seems unlikely that he will take up any of the issues which I raise with him in relation to the terrible situation in Palestine or the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government, in breach of human rights.  So I am going to post his responses on this blog. Please read on.

Time to tell Israel enough is enough - Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

Here is my speech for the protest in Aberdeen on 7th April to condemn the shootings of unarmend Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Forces. 

That very day the news broke about the killing of photo journalist Yusef Murtaja despite wearing a PRESS vest. Yet our government still sells arms to Israel and refuses to condemn this outrage.

"So here we are again 

Gathered together in Aberdeen to condemn once again the horrific actions of the Israeli government against the people of Palestine

And sending a message of support and solidarity to the people of Gaza

Here’s what you need to know about the shooting of unarmed Palestinians protesting in Gaza

These are not clashes

Clashes are incidents that take place between equals

Clashes are what you see in Parliament, when Jeremy Corbyn takes on Theresa May or the SNP and Labour disagree on levels of taxation

What we are seeing in Gaza just now is a massacre – pure and simple

Soldiers armed with live ammunition are shooting unarmed Palestinians

And let’s make no mistake 

Most are engaged in peaceful protest – you can see that from the video footage on social media

But it doesn’t actually matter if some of those Palestinians are throwing stones or bits of burning rubber
 

Shooting and killing is a complete over-reaction

It is a tactic designed to terrorise

To put down and control an entire population to make them feel powerless

Men, women and children – trying to tell the world what is going on in Gaza

Killed and maimed by live ammunition

It’s terrorising and it’s terrorism – pure and simple

Ordinary people standing in solidarity with Gaza - Stories from the Aberdeen protests

As we gathered for the third Saturday in a row to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza, to mourn the deaths and injuries of so many Palestinian people, so many children, a woman came up to me, with tears in her eyes. “I need to do something about this,” she said. “Tell me what I can do.”

She had been out shopping and had stopped to listen to the speakers at the protest. Speakers like Ibrahim, who grew up in Gaza with family still there, like June, of the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who read out a poem written earlier that week by a young mother living in Gaza, who got a phone call from “someone who knew my name” warning her family that their home would be bombed and to leave; speakers like seasoned trade unionist, Brian, who wept when he heard of the killing earlier that week of the four little boys playing football on the beach.

“I didn’t know,” she said, “Tell me what I can do.”