Oxford Palestine solidarity march
Tim | 27.04.2002 18:14
Oxford Palestine solidarity march
Palestine Solidarity demonstration.
We mustered a respectable sized crowd (a couple of hundred I guess) and it was a really mixed one too- different colours, full spread of ages.
The SWP had supplied plenty of placards (not everything in black and white makes sense!) but this was offset by plenty of Palestinian flags and others.
Someone had a US flag - didn't see them burn it though.
Before the march started (from Manzil Way, Cowley Road) a rumour circulated that there was a Jewish counter-demo in town. In fact there was a Jewish-led pro-peace demo of a few dozen people. They held Palestinian and Israeli flags and these placards that said CoeXisT with the C as an Islamic Crescent, the X as a Star of David and the T as a Christian Cross.
Don't know why they didn't just merge the groups - perhaps a different vision of the terms of peace.
At the rally on Broad Street someone from the other demo shouted something when a Palestinian speaker had the stage, but was shushed by police [Thames Valley Police are amazing peacemakers ;-) ].
The two groups were separated at about 40 ft, with a ragged line of police when they decided there was a fair chance of trouble.
Tim