People Make Gaza - people of Glasgow stand with Palestine

George Square, Glasgow
(with a little People Make Gaza 'addition')

There was yet another tremendous turnout in Glasgow yesterday in support of the suffering people of Gaza.

Isn't it remarkable to think that, here in the heart of our Merchant City, while so many people are gathered from the furthest part of the Empire to enjoy the Games, the people of Gaza are under lock-down, not only being bombed, maimed and terrorised, but unable even to flee their slither of besieged land.

As yet another UN school crammed with civilians is assaulted, the third in ten days, it's been hard coming to terms with the horror of their situation.

Observing the images and imagining the terror, I still have feelings of incomprehension over how even such a ruthless, violence-addicted state could actually kill so many civilians, so many children, in UN refuges, schools and hospitals.

And with that sense of bewilderment, another question: how do they get away with it?

As Obama and Cameron issue their unctuous pleas for a ceasefire, forced to declare their grudging 'concern' over the humanitarian toll, the ships are still cruising into Haifa laden with US bombs and armaments for final, terrifying delivery into Gazans' homes. Disgracefully, Britain assists with drones, armoured vehicles, ammunition and other murderous technology.

And what, as despairingly, to be said of the BBC and wider media which, while relaying the terrible images from Gaza, still speak obsequiously of a 'two-sided war', still implying Palestinian blame, still failing to raise the key contextual issues of the occupation and siege? 

Just beyond George Square lies Nelson Mandela Place, an emblem of how Glasgow stood in solidarity during many of the darkest years of South African apartheid.

Yesterday, protesters stood in front of the City Chambers as a reminder of what has to be done now for occupied and apartheid-inflicted Palestinians, notably the adoption of real boycott and sanctions measures. 

While Glasgow council should be doing much more for Palestine, many of the city's people already are.

And their admirable support makes at least one thing clear and comprehensible to this writer: that there will - however desperate things seem for the people of Gaza and the West Bank - be a day of justice and liberation for Palestine, a day when innocents will no longer be bombed and murdered, but able to leave their imprisoned land, to travel and return with dignity to their homes, to have the same basic human rights as others.

Hopefully then many of them will stand here in our city as a welcome and free people.