Around 1,500 people today, amongst them MP’s, academics, students, anarchists, Marxists, and who ever else was up for it - marched in solidarity from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, calling for the immediate removal of the roadblocks and trenches that were dug up by the Israeli occupation forces last week, and a cessation to the confiscation of Palestinian land on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Undeterred by a typically wet London day the rain soaked crowd marched past 10 Downing Street where veteran left wing MP Tony Benn handed in a petition. Unfortunately Prime Minister Tony Blair was busy in Chequers, his countryside retreat, and was unable to accept it in person.

At Trafalgar Square the crowd listened to many Palestinian and Israeli testimonials, and rousing speeches from Bruce Kent (from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), Dr Ghada Karmi, chair Palestinian Community and Jeremy Corbin MP. A call for an immediate ban of all weapons sales to Israel was warmly received.

The rally also called for the release of Samar & Jawad. On 11 December 1996, Samar Alami, a Lebanese Palestinian woman, and Jawad Botmeh, a Palestinian man, were wrongfully convicted of conspiracy in relation to the bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Balfour House in London in 1994. Both have been sentenced to an extraordinary twenty years in prison, after which they face deportation. Freedom and Justice for Samar & Jawad is determined to fight this miscarriage of justice by explaining why it is believed that Samar and Jawad are innocent of these charges, providing information about the case, and giving you an opportunity to help the efforts to free them. To find out more, visit the site www.freesaj.org.uk

Visit www.indymedia.org.il + www.palestinecampaign.org for up date news on the intifada.