Jeremy Corbyn was unable to make a pro-Palestine march in Glasgow on Saturday after his train to Scotland was cancelled due to Storm Bert. The former Labour leader – who sits as an independent MP – was set to give a speech at the protest but audience members were told he was unable to attend.
It comes as Storm Bert batters the UK, with large swathes of Scotland under a Met Office yellow weather warning. Protesters gathered in Glasgow City Centre in the morning to call for an end to all arms sales to Israel. People marched from Glasgow Green to George Square urging for an end to the fighting in Gaza and Lebanon as well as a de-escalation in tensions with Iran.
The bad weather in Glasgow prompted a last-minute change with people giving speeches indoors. Speaking at the rally, human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar said the war in Gaza was treated differently than other conflicts. He said: “We have watched the west go into overdrive for the last year, for the last several weeks, to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, ready to take us to the brink of the third world war.
“And as said by the previous speaker, there are no winners in a nuclear war. But we should also ask the question, what is the difference, because there is actually a greater difference when you talk about parts of Ukraine being occupied by Russia when Palestine has been occupied for nearly eight decades longer than Ukraine.
“History will judge those that gave the green light to slaughter.” Mr Anwar said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence secretary must face a trial at The Hague. The comment comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the Israeli leader and Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The ICC also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s armed wing, over the October 7 2023 attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have condemned ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for warrants as disgraceful and antisemitic.
He criticised the arrest warrant against him, saying Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions”. Mr Anwar told a crowd in Glasgow: “Let me be crystal clear, there can never be any justification for the murder of innocent Israeli men and women and children on October 7 – no justification.
“But that also means there is no justification for the collective punishment for Palestinians for almost eight decades, the imprisonment, the murder of innocent Palestinians on an industrial scale and a system that kills, that carpet bombs, that segregates, that starves, that annexes, that expels, that destroys, that imprisons and demolishes.”
The Israeli government has denied accusations of genocide. Following the ICC’s arrest warrant for the nation’s leader, his office said: “There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.” The death toll in the fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas surpassed 44,000 this week, according to local health officials.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but it has said that more than half of the deaths are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, while another 250 were abducted. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a ceasefire last year. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused heavy destruction across wide areas of the coastal territory.
The destruction has left many to wonder when or how it will ever be rebuilt. Around 90% of the population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services.
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