We we're joined last night outside the usual Thursday meeting place (Marks and Spencer on Oxford St) by people, mainly from ISM, who are on a hunger-strke in Paddington Green - solidarity that they were taking with the Palestinian hunger-strikers in Israeli Gaols. The Palestinians went on hunger strike about 2 weeks ago to protest, not so much even for political reasons, but for basic humanitarian reasons - access to lawyers, visits from families, an end to solitary confinement, basic medicine. The things which any civilised society would grant. The Israeli foreign minister responded by saying he would rather let these thousands of Palestinians all starve to death than let them have these rights which are enshrined in the Geneva Convention. After the demo a lot of us had the pleasure of going down to Paddington Green and meeting the hunger strikers there, talking to them and finding out more about what was going on in Palestine.

The hunger strike is a way the Palestinians can get their message out to the world about the brutality of Israeli Occupation. It is another way of fighting back and we support them wholeheartedly. It is not just the prisoners who are in a prison, but essentially all Palestinians who are now stuck behind the apartheid wall and living under cufew and constrained by army checkpoints. Sadly the world's press, as usual, has been slow to publicise the hunger strikers plight, which is why the responsibility lies on us all, as much as ever, to take actions to spread the word to the British people about what is going on. Whether it be protesting outside M&S or having a vigil on Paddington Green.

As has been the case over the past few weeks the turnout was good and the vibe of the picket was excellent, with street theatre, chanting and different speeches from different people. As has also been the case of late, the response from the public was very positive with several new people joing us and a lot of people stopping to chat and discuss.

Sadly, as I had feared, the Zionist counter-demonstration reached a shameful new low. After the atrocity at the school in Russia last week, which we all openly condemn, the Zionists were sick enough to use this to advance their own cause and blame it on the Palestinians.

I do not wish to spend time writing about these people, but the Zionist counter-demo is useful to use as a microcosm and reflection of Zionist and imperialist thinking at large. Unable to defend the ongoing crimes of the Israeli State they are forced to make absurd associations and links where they do not exist and manifest and pervert them to such extremes to justify what they are doing. This is because there are no concrete and material justifications for the Israeli State to continue its ongoing ethnic cleansing and occupation of the Palestinians. From the narrow confines of Zionist thought it was the Palestinians who had to make way for the crime of the Nazis even though they had nothing to do with the holocaust in Europe (unlike some Zionists such as Jabotinsky who had soild links to the fascist movements). Then we are told that the Palestinians cannot live in peace and that is why there is the apartheid wall (Defence Fence in Zionist talk), amongst other countless injustices, because they are a bunch of suicide bombers. Well let's leave aside for the moment the just argument that no human being is born wanting to blow themselves up and that such desperate acts are the inevitable result of a brutalised and occupied people. The truth is that up until the suicide bombing last week there had been 6 WHOLE MONTHS without a single attack against Israel. 6 WHOLE MONTHS OF PEACE? Of sorts, 6 months of peace by the Palestinians but 6 months of slaughter by the Israelis. Over 400 Palestinians, many of them children, had been killed during this 6 month period of peace by the Palestinians. Not to mention vast tracks of Palestinian land stolen and countless homes destroyed. So the next time any Zionist dares to quote they offer 'peace' we can laugh in their face with the truth, though more importantly, we can cease to waste our time on such people and convey the facts and the truth to the general public. This is our continuing mission.

Not only has there not been peace, but there continues to be no justice for the Palestinian people.
it is essential that we build a solidarity movement here in the UK.
Support the Palestinian people! Join the M&S demos every Thursday 6 till 8pm outside Marks and Spencer, Oxford St (Marble Arch end)!
Join and support the Paddington Green vigil which is going on until Sunday!
Solidarity and victory to the hunger strikers!
Victory to the Intifada!