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Protesters challenge grotesque celebration of 65 years of ethnic cleansing

inminds
18 April 2013

On Tuesday 16th April 2013, over 50 Palestinian rights activists protested against 10,000 Zionists who had descended upon Wembley Arena to celebrate 65 years of murder, rape, pillage and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people at the Zionist Federations "Israel 65 Gala Concert".

We will stand up for the Palestinians..

We will not be silent..

Such a grotesque event could not be left to proceed unchallenged, so despite the fact that the larger Palestine Solidarity Campaign group had decided to do nothing, a handful of activists mounted a protest at very short notice. With Palestine Solidarity Campaign not even prepared to advertise the protest, it was left for us to utilise social media to mobile people on our own. Taking all this in to consideration, it was a fantastic turnout. One does however have to ask that if Palestine Solidarity Campaign didn't think it important to stand up in solidarity with the Palestinians on this day, what day are they saving their 'solidarity' for? And who were they helping by not advertising this protest?

Dedicated people from all backgrounds and communities responded to the call including Muslims, Christians and Jews - all united against Zionism and its 65 year occupation of Palestine. Some people had travelled over 60 miles just to attend the protest, they felt there was just no way they could sit at home when 10,000 Zionists were coming to dance on the 65 years suffering of the Palestinian people. One young female activist was surrounded by a dozen abusive Zionist males who spotted her Palestine band around her wrist on the underground but she did not turn back, and stuck it out to attend the protest. Our good friends from the Neturei Karta came in full force - over a dozen rabbis mustered at just a few hours notice - fantastic commitment to justice.

"Gas the Arabs!" - something to celebrate?

Whilst Palestine is still occupied this is what a Palestinian flag should look - one that bears the scares of countless protests..

X Factor winner Alexandra Burke pulled out
of the Israel celebration on the eve of the concert

The protesters waved Palestinian flags and held placards from 8 designs specially made for the day, following with the theme 65 Years of Murder.. something to celebrate?, 65 Years of land theft.. something to celebrate?, 65 Years of Ethnic cleansing.. something to celebrate?, etc. Some wonderful home creations were also on display including one alluding to 65 being retirement age for Israel.

The favourite chant of the evening was "Judaism yes, Zionism no, the state of Israel must go!" - it made the Zionist hordes look stupid when they regurgitated their standard mantra of "anti-Semite!" at the first sign of any criticism of Israel. So instead many of them resorted to spitting and crude hand gestures and occasions shouts of "dirty Arabs!", thinking this would make them look more intelligent. When a policeman caught one Zionist woman spitting at us, she justified her vulgar action by saying "sorry office, I'm just not use to seeing this..". Every Israeli Jew over the age of 17, both men and women, normally spend 2-3 years in the military abusing Palestinians - this thuggish training was evident on the day with several incidents of police having to drag Zionists away. The more refined Zionists instead of waving fists where using cameras up close to try and intimidate people, one particular one who writes a blog was warned by the police and dragged back to the Zionist lines.

The sight of Muslims and Jews shoulder to shoulder united against Zionism chanting "Judaism yes, Zionism no, Israel must go!" was a bitter one for Zionists coming to celebrate Israel's 65th year of occupation of Palestine to take.

Anti-zionist Rabbis holding placard as Zionists walk toward Wembley Area

Apparently the Hebrew reads "Israel is a terrorist state"

With regards to the policing, whilst the ordinary constables were fine, the same could not be said of the Inspector in-charge on the day. Before the event we had contacted the police and agreed the location of our protest (Corner of Arena Square on Engineers Way) and registered it with them and receiving a CAD number legalising the protest at the specified location. Yet upon arriving for the protest we found the police had erected a pen for us on another street (Empire Way) nearly half a kilometre away from Arena Square, totally out of sight of Wembley Arena. The Inspector insisting we had to go there to protest otherwise we would be causing a breach of the peace. It took him over 6 minutes to walk us the designated pen! We explained our protest at Arena Square had been agreed and hence legal and he had to respect that. He claimed that nothing had been agreed and when we produced the CAD number evidence he refused to check it, saying he was in charge and he had made a the decision and the only choice we had was to obey his decision. Well we didn't. As we started to walk back to the Arena Square he initially tried to stop us. We explained to him that it was a public road and we had every right to walk up it. He finally allowed us to walk on condition we kept our placards under raps, again threatening us with breach of the peace if we displayed any placards outside the designated pen. Once we reached Arena Square, after some heated moments when we explained to him that he was being prejudiced against us, we as citizens had an equal right to be there as those attending the gala and it was his job to facilitate that, he finally backed down and we held our protest at the location we wanted. Lots of lessons there for activists - hold your ground and have an understanding of the law, in these situations it would appear the police are counting on our ignorance of the law in order to get us to do things which legally they cant enforce.

It was also very noticeable that the inspector was very chummy with the CST who were providing security for the Zionists. The CST (Community Security Trust) is a private militia (without arms) which has been trained by the Metropolitan Police and consists of many ex-Israeli military personnel and answers only to the Board of Deputies of British Jews - Israel's mouthpiece in the UK, who send them out to provide security at many Zionist functions.

All in all the protest was a great success, all the Zionists walking from the car park or from the tube station to the concert saw us. we got the message out - that its not acceptable to celebrate 65 years of ethnic cleansing - shame on them.

Placard Designs

Zionist Federation Advert "10,000 Zionists.."

Source: www.inminds.com

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