Durham & Newcastle pro-Palestinian march call for ceasefire

The marches in Newcastle/Gateshead and Durham City, organised by respective branches of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, were among 100 held throughout the country.  

Pro-Palestinian protest organisers planned a national day of action on Saturday, instead of a large march in central London.

On previous weekends thousands of protesters and counter-protesters have converged on the capital.

About 200 marchers with the County Durham Palestinian Solidarity Campaign gathered at Palace Green in front of Durham Cathedral, before making their way to the Market Place.

Chanting "Free Palestine", "Ceasefire Now", "Stop Bombing Gaza", "stop bombing children" and "stop bombing hospitals", they then made their way to Framwellgate Bridge where they held placards spelling out "Ceasefire Now".

The event passed off peacefully, with only two police officers monitoring the situation. 

Durham's branch campaign officer John Metson said: "The most important thing is for a ceasefire as soon as possible to end the slaughter of Gazan people. Their suffering is absolutely terrible, as I am sure everyone can see on their televisions.

"Beyond that we want our Government to contribute to a new peace process, a political process to arrive at a political solution to this problem.

"We have had 75 years since Israel was created and same errors are being repeated over and over again. We need a completely new approach with everyone who lives in the land of historic Palestine has equal rights. "

In Newcastle, thousands descended on the Quayside to take part in the Cross the Tyne for Palestine march.

Organised by the Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign (NPSC), the route passed over the Millennium Bridge and ended in Baltic Square, where speakers addressed the gathering.

A national spokeswoman for organisers Stop The War Coalition said that Saturday’s smaller rallies come ahead of a national demonstration planned for the following Saturday.

“Groups around the country are organising local rallies and marches to basically build for the national demonstration that has been called for next Saturday,” she said.

The spokeswoman added that most of the rallies will have speakers, and some groups will still march.

“I think most of them have speakers from various organisations that are involved in the main marches, and then trade unionists,” she said.

“Some of them have trade unionists as speakers, and some of them are marching, like the one in Highbury.

“We are marching to (Labour shadow attorney general) Emily Thornberry’s office from Highbury and Islington station, but some of them are static, so it depends really.”

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Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the rallies were organised to show that “ordinary people” support a ceasefire.

“This Saturday, ordinary people across the UK will come out again to show the vast majority of them support a ceasefire,” he said.

“They will show their solidarity with Palestinians who are suffering unimaginable harm.

“They will also demand the root causes are not forgotten – Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestinian territories and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.

“We demand justice for the Palestinian people – their right to self-determination and to live in freedom, safety, and with full human rights.”