On Sunday night (25 November 2012)
around forty people
gathered opposite Rochdale town hall to remember the victims of
Israel’s latest
bombing and bombardment of Gaza and to call for justice and
freedom for
Palestine. They heard speeches from Linda Clair, chair of
Manchester Palestine
Solidarity Campaign and Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk.
During the candlelit vigil, members of
the crowd read out
the names of more than 30 Palestinian children known to have
been killed during
Israel’s most recent attacks and kept a minute’s silence in
their memory.
Philip Gilligan from Rochdale and
Littleborough Peace
Group reported that he and other local campaigners had also
joined thousands of
protesters from across the country outside the Israeli embassy
in London on the
previous day (Saturday 24 November 2012). They had marched from
Downing Street and
heard speakers like the mayor of Jenin, Hadem Rida, and Jeremy
Corbyn, MP who had
called for an end to arms sales to Israel, a boycott of all
Israeli goods and
the return of illegally occupied land.
Rochdale Palestine Solidarity Campaign Coordinator, Jenny
Turner said:
“It is time for the international community to put an end
to Israel’s
war crimes. Too many people and too many children have died in
Netanyahu’s
ruthless attacks. It is time for ordinary people in Rochdale and
throughout the
world to demand an end to the oppression of the Palestinian
people. Enough is
enough; there will be no peace until Palestinians have justice.
We shall
continue to demand an end to the occupation, an end to the siege
of Gaza, an
end to house demolitions, an end to illegal seizures of
Palestinian land. We
demand an end to arms sales to Israel and immediate
international inspection and
control of Israel’s huge arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
