Pro-Palestinian Britons condemn Gaza siege, attacks

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists have demonstrated outside the Israeli embassy in London, condemning Tel Aviv’s ongoing blockade and attacks on the Gaza Strip.

According to reports, more than 500 protesters voiced their outrage in the protest, which was called by Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Sunday.

Waving placards and chanting slogans like “Free Free Palestine,” “End the siege of Gaza,” and “We are all Palestinians,” the protesters condemned Israeli war crimes in the territory, including putting children in solitary confinement.

Demonstrators also called on the international community, including the British government, to pressure Israel to lift the siege on Gaza.

The rally was attended by British pro-Palestinian MPs as well as several campaign organizations including, Stop the War Coalition, Jews for Justice for Palestine, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and Palestinian Forum in Britain.

Referring to the terrible suffering that is going on in Gaza, former Liberal Democrat MP Baroness Jenny Tonge said, “The people there are going hungry, being poisoned and deprived of their human rights.”

The protest was also organized to mark five years since the end of Israel’s bloody assault on Gaza in 2008-2009.

The impoverished Gaza remains under Israel’s food and drugs embargo since 2007. The 22-day war on the coastal strip in December 2008 claimed the lives of over 1,400 Palestinians.

The Israeli military often targets Palestinians along the border with the Gaza Strip, which remains literally cut off from the outside world by a crippling Israeli blockade.

The siege has turned the densely-populated coastal sliver, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians, into the largest open-air prison in the world.