The fountains in London’s Trafalgar Square were full of lumps of ice as thousands of friends of Israel arrived to call for peace and an end to terror. Israeli and British flags fluttered in the breeze, while there was a sea of blue and white placards calling for “End Hamas Terror! Peace for the People of Israel and Gaza” and “Enough rockets in Sderot”. Events were marred somewhat by the presence of a noisy counter-protest (fortunately separated from our rally by a heavy police presence); unfortunately the wind was blowing their noise towards our crowd. Nevertheless, our speakers were able to make themselves heard and our cheering and clapping drowned out their anti-Israel chants.
The speakers all said very similar things and it is hard in retrospect to remember who exactly said what (I tried to take notes at the time, but it was so cold that my pen was not working properly – if only I’d brought a pencil!), so apologies for any mistakes in attributions or if I have forgotten anything important.
The first speaker was Henry Grunwald, chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He spoke of Israel’s commitment to life and peace for its own citizens and for those of Gaza. This was to be one of the major themes of the morning.
Mick Davis of the UJIA spoke about Hamas being the real war criminals, targeting Israeli civilians and hiding behind Palestinian women and children.
Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the UK, spoke of our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel and pointed out that Israel left Gaza in 2005; had Hamas wanted their own state, they could have built one in peace, but instead they turned back to violence.
Two MPs spoke, one Labour (Andrew Dismore) and one Conservative (Douglas Carswell). Both stated their friendship for Israel, a liberal democracy committed to peace.
Tim Vince brought a message from the Bishop of Manchester, chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews again stressing solidarity with Israel and its desire for a just peace and an end to terror.
Finally, the Chief Rabbi spoke about Israel’s burning desire for peace. He gave examples of committed Zionists who have helped the Palestinians to try to promote peaceful coexistence. He stated that Hamas could end all the current violence with just three words: “Yes to peace!”
We then chanted oseh shalom bimromav; unfortunately those leading the chanting were singing a different tune to most of the people in the crowd! We concluded by singing God Save the Queen and the Hatikva, the British and Israeli national anthems. The crowd then peacefully dispersed.
The funniest moment of the day was when it was announced that we were live on BBC news, which was met by initial cheering and then vocal booing! There could be no clearer demonstration of the contempt with which the BBC and its biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is held by most Jews in this country.
The speakers all said very similar things and it is hard in retrospect to remember who exactly said what (I tried to take notes at the time, but it was so cold that my pen was not working properly – if only I’d brought a pencil!), so apologies for any mistakes in attributions or if I have forgotten anything important.
The first speaker was Henry Grunwald, chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He spoke of Israel’s commitment to life and peace for its own citizens and for those of Gaza. This was to be one of the major themes of the morning.
Mick Davis of the UJIA spoke about Hamas being the real war criminals, targeting Israeli civilians and hiding behind Palestinian women and children.
Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the UK, spoke of our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Israel and pointed out that Israel left Gaza in 2005; had Hamas wanted their own state, they could have built one in peace, but instead they turned back to violence.
Two MPs spoke, one Labour (Andrew Dismore) and one Conservative (Douglas Carswell). Both stated their friendship for Israel, a liberal democracy committed to peace.
Tim Vince brought a message from the Bishop of Manchester, chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews again stressing solidarity with Israel and its desire for a just peace and an end to terror.
Finally, the Chief Rabbi spoke about Israel’s burning desire for peace. He gave examples of committed Zionists who have helped the Palestinians to try to promote peaceful coexistence. He stated that Hamas could end all the current violence with just three words: “Yes to peace!”
We then chanted oseh shalom bimromav; unfortunately those leading the chanting were singing a different tune to most of the people in the crowd! We concluded by singing God Save the Queen and the Hatikva, the British and Israeli national anthems. The crowd then peacefully dispersed.
The funniest moment of the day was when it was announced that we were live on BBC news, which was met by initial cheering and then vocal booing! There could be no clearer demonstration of the contempt with which the BBC and its biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is held by most Jews in this country.
4 comments:
Glad to hear some good news. Anyone announcing solidarity with Israel sounds good to me.
That last part about booing BBC had me laughing out loud. I was just comparing their notes to some other news sites before I came over to check out your blog... and I was booing them too!
I hope the booing made it on live broadcasting. :)
The BBC deserves to be booed. LOL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOWptKsPHYQ&eur
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