March Route announced: Piccadilly (Green Park) to march to Whitehall.
The Palestine coalition is pleased that we are finally in a position to announce the route of our demonstration this coming Saturday 15 March. We will be assembling at 12 noon on Piccadilly (Green Park) to march to Whitehall.
As we stated last week, we first contacted the police three weeks ago to inform them of our intention to march and our proposed route. Since then, the police have been threatening to impose conditions on the march but refusing until now to tell us what those conditions might be. Had we announced an assembly point in these circumstances, it could have placed protestors in danger of arrest by a police force engaged in increasing repression.
The police have now agreed to our route but have said that they will impose conditions to prevent us from assembling on Park Lane as originally planned. They have also stated that this decision was made following consultation with pro-Israel groups, who again raised concerns about synagogues which were not on the route of the march and more than 12 minutes away from the point of assembly. We will continue to fight these restrictions through every means available, it is clear that supporters of Israeli apartheid are aiming to prevent any marches for Palestine at all.
This unacceptable delay creates significant logistical challenges for the organisers and causes serious disruption to many of those wishing to participate – in particular, those travelling from outside London, members of the Muslim community who need to make appropriate arrangements to pray and break their fast due to Ramadan, and disabled activists wishing to identify and advertise an accessible route to join the main march. The police were fully appraised of these issues and have chosen to ignore them. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that this delay was politically motivated and deliberately designed to suppress participation and shield the police from any potential challenge or accountability for these unjustified decisions.
Nevertheless, the reasons for our protest are as urgent as ever. Right now, Israel is refusing to abide by the ceasefire agreement and is instead imposing collective punishment on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. Last week, Israel reimposed a total blockade and has now cut off electricity to Gaza’s only operating water desalination plant – using the threat of starvation and water shortages to achieve its genocidal goals. Israel continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza through drone strikes and sniper fire, including 2 Palestinians killed in the Shujaiya neighbourhood on Friday, while it escalates its violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Our best response to this continuing attempt to suppress our movement by the police and pro-Israel groups is to refuse to be silenced and assemble in huge numbers. Join us on Saturday at 12 noon on Piccadilly to demand that the British government end its complicity in these crimes freedom for Palestine, no to ethnic cleansing, stop arming Israel.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum in Britain
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Stop the War Coalition
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
