Three thousand descended in Middlesbrough on Saturday 17th January to express their revulsion of the Israeli occupation and siege of Gaza and the inhumane bombing of innocent children and civilians. Apart from the fact that this was the biggest turn out at a Stop the War event in Teeside for DECADES, it was fantastic to see young and old, black and white, Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists all united against Israel and what the occupation stands for.

Although the march started early (thanks to coaxing from the local coppers), people were armed with placards, damning pictures of Israel’s human rights violations, pictures from websites such as al-jazeera and Press TV and GIANT Palestinian flags waved on 8foot poles, visable from down the road. I must say, we really made an impact!

After we got started, the crowd were rather tame and respectable – being made up of a Muslim majority, many did not want to anger the police and therefore did not want to chant. But many of us got people going with megaphones and catchy chants. People came out on Linthorpe Road, peered out of shops, hung out of balcony windows, taking photographs of us, marking this historic occasion where the residents of Teesside said “No more” to the illegal occupation of the Palestinian people.

As we marched, we waved, chanted and expressed our revulsion, the latter part of the marchers stopping on Linthorpe Road for a while to prolong the occupation of the road, in a symbolic gesture.

After reaching the centre, we were safely steered away from the shops by our lovely police force, we stood outside the council buildings where there was a rally led by Peter Smith of the PSC who introduced speakers. The crowd listened in silence, a lot of them unable to understand the complex speeches by the first few speakers. Many of them in the crowd were of the older Muslim generation, therefore unable to access the complex speeches given by the MP’s. This tamed the crowd FAR too much, and some people did try to get people roused again with megaphones, but the people of Middlesbrough did not want to chant while stationery!

The final two speakers, Yvonne Ridley and the Socialist Worker DID manage to give inspiring speeches which were radical in nature, and DID play to the crowd and to their emotions whole-heartedly, but chanting was kept to a minimum. However, many did report to me that this did not detract from the message of the rally: PEACE FOR GAZA, END THE SEIGE, END THE OCCUPATION, TAKE ISRAEL TO A WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL.

After all, that’s what we came out for, that’s what we chanted about, that’s what we all want. The people of Teesside made history on Saturday, let’s all keep the action going.

Palestine is still occupied, so resistance is justified. People of Middlesbrough UNITE!