London: Thousands gather in Trafalgar Square to demand end to Israel's 'genocidal wars'

Toys and flowers left at gates of Downing Street

Thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square, central London on Saturday afternoon, 19 October, to demand an immediate end to Israel's 'genocide' in Gaza, attacks in the West Bank, their invasion of Lebanon, for the drive to war with Iran to be stopped and for the US and UK to halt all arms sales to Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Many brought flowers and children's toys to commemorate the victims of Israel's slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, the majority of them women and children.

The London rally was part of a huge day of action up and down the country, with marches, die-ins and protests in many towns and cities.

Among the speakers in Trafalgar Square were the British journalist and author Gary Younge, Jewish Voices for Labour secretary Glyn Sekker, John McDonnell MP, PCS union general secretary Fran Heathcote, NEU president Phil Clarke, comedian and author Alexei Sayle and Ahmed Alnaouq, the journalist who has lost more than 20 members of his family in Gaza.

Chris Nineham, Stop the War vice chair, told the crowds: "What is so sickening and disturbing is that Netanyahu, Biden and our government have no red lines. Children are being burnt alive, populations buried under rubble, and war with Iran looms, and yet the West continues to support Israel.

"This great movement has already defied threats to ban demonstrations, unseated a Home Secretary, forced the government to cut arms sales and to agree to arrest Netanyahu should he ever visit. We have, however, much more to do. We must deepen and broaden the movement and we must escalate. We have to make it impossible for our government to continue supporting this barbarity."

Alexei Sayle, read this poem written by James Baldwin during the Vietnam War:

Every bombed village is my hometown
And every dead child is my child
Every crying father in my father.
Every home toiled to rubble
Is the home I grew up in.
Every brother carrying the remains of his brother across borders is my brother.
Every sister waiting for a sister, who will never come home, is my sister.

Every one of these people are ours,
Just like we are theirs. We belong to them
And they belong to us.

After the rally, Pax Christi supporter, Lyn Bergin who came from Romford with her children told ICN: "We're here because we are so concerned about what's happening. The news just gets worse and worse - schools and hospitals bombed … the images this week of that fire in the refuge camp were unbearable to watch."

Lyn and her family joined a large group who walked down Whitehall to lay toys and flowers at the gates of Downing Street, to demand that Keir Starmer stops looking away at the horrors in Gaza, including the burning alive this week of displaced people sheltering in tents outside a hospital.

There have been 20 pro-Palestine national demonstrations since October 2023, which have seen hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of London, as well as thousands of local protests, student encampments, boycott and divestment campaign, and a series of trade union backed national workplace days of action.

The next national march will be on 2 November.