Rae Street from Littleborough was one the main speakers at a rally organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Greater Manchester and District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Stop the War Coalition and Viva Palestina in Manchester on Sunday afternoon (13 June 2010). She joined thousands of demonstrators from across the region, including several members of Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group, in condemning Israel’s deadly attack on the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ aid convoy on 31May 2010 and in welcoming home Babu Adam Zanghar from Bolton and Paveen Yaqub from Huddersfield who are survivors of the attacks which left at least 9 people dead. The demonstrators called for freedom for the people of Palestine and, in particular for an independent international investigation into Israel’s attack on the boats which had been attempting to take aid to the besieged people of Gaza.
Rae Street said,
“I very much want to thank Paveen and Babu for telling us the truth about what happened to people on the flotilla. I also want to remind you of some other truths. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons, but our government maintains a hypocritical silence about the dangers which their upwards of 200 nuclear warheads pose to the peace and stability of the world. Meanwhile, Mordechai Vanunu who has already suffered 18 years of imprisonment for revealing the truth about Israeli nuclear weapons has, now, again been imprisoned for daring to talk to reporters; for simply telling the truth. We all need to stand together to expose the truth about Israel and to tell our government to end its hypocrisy and to, immediately, stop selling arms to a state which has broken international law again and again.”
To view a copy of Rae's speech, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuEVmnOtUv0
