Palestine Rally in Trafalgar Square

Mental note to self: Never post to Indymedia when pissed!

I put way too many pictures on the page and posted a couple of high res ones by mistake.

I have loads more which I might try and post once I have sobered up a bit.

Now Miss Indymedia - where is that edit button so I could undo what I have done?!

thanks for posting.

cheers

I hope you've got pics of Peter Tatchell and the Outrage crew to post up aswell.

(Israel stop persecuting Palestine. Palestine stop persecuting gays.)


Or perhaps some of Outrage's own will soon go up.

Interestingly the PLO has explitly condemned homophobia and discrimination against homosexuals.

While homophobia is common in most middle eastern societies including Israel it is not the key issue here.

Peter Tatchell doesn't seem aware of the discrimination faced by homosexuals in Israel.

Of course lesbian and gay people face discrimination in Israel, as they do in the UK and in most other countries. However, they are not killed, tortured or imprisoned. Indeed, most major Israeli cities have Gay Pride parades and it is well reported how many Palestinian gays flee to Israel as asylum seekers.

For your information, the PLO did NOT condemn homophobia - it was reported as such in The Independent newspaper, but this is apparently a mistake. One of the organisers for Saturday's event told OutRage! that the anti-homophobia statement originated from the London-based Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, NOT from the PLO themselves.

It is perfectly reasonable to call for a halt to ALL arbirary imprisonment, torture and persecution in Palestine - including that of gay Palestinians by other Palestinians.

If you want to derive a "heirarchy of suffering" and decide which groups' rights ought to underplayed or ignored, that's up to you. It is not a task I would like to undertake.

Millions of Palestinians live in exile after been driven out of Palestine. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip the Zionists kill and level homes at will.

A demonstration is organised in support of a Free Palestine. Peter T uses it as another opportunity to boost his ego.

 http://www.p10k.net/

homosexuality is not illegal in israel. in tel-aviv there's an annual gay parade. it's true lots of religious people don't accept it, but whoever said that gays are discriminated against in israel misses the pointif israel is substituted by a "bi-national state" then gays will be really persecuted

May 8th 1945 – May 14th 1948

Never forget! Solidarity with Israel!
After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on May 8th 1945, Jewish survivors, who had survived concentration camps, exile, resistance and illegality, began to search for a place, which could provide effective protection from anti-Semitism. In a world, which was organized in nations, where anti-Semitism continued to exist in spite of and then because of Auschwitz, it seemed obvious to found their own state for this purpose. It is true, that there was a Zionist movement before: But the foundation of the state of Israel on May 14th 1948 was a consequence from the Shoa in the first place.
54 years later, Israel is in danger, more than ever. This does not only concern Palestinian terrorism and the threats from Arabic states: Currently, the most dangerous political threat for Israel is the European Union. Under German leadership, Europe praises enemies of the Jewish state such as Hussein, Al-Assad and Arafat. Thus a European public is served, which produces more and more anti-Israeli attacks. Since the beginning of the Al-Aksa-Intifada in October 2000, a wave of anti-Semitism hits Europe and the rest of the world. Its protagonists can count on social acceptance, which reminds of the 1930ies. At the UN-conference against racism in Durban, European states allowed the meeting to become a tribunal against Israel. The anti-Israeli agitation comes along with an understanding of the most cruel implementations of Islamic fascism. Europe supports the most reactionary regimes in the Arabic region – it competes for influence with the USA; while some European states approvingly accept, that weakening the American position also means weakening Israel, Germany still thinks this is about the ‘past that does not want to pass’ (Ernst Nolte).
57 years after May 8th 1945, there is still a type of anti-Zionism in Germany, which believes to have learned its lessons from the past and which can therefore – all the more casually – articulate the anti-Semitic resentment: ‘Normality’ means to get rid of the imagined chains of the past. The Israeli military action after the Pesach-massacre was and is medially represented by absolutely partial pro-Palestinian statements only. This goes with an anti-Americanism eager to place at the disposal the imperative solidarity with the United States that were attacked. The Islamic massacre of 9/11 was taken as a chance to break away from the USA concerning the Middle-East-policy.
The foundation of the state of Israel was a consequence of the end of National Socialism and the victory of the anti-Hitler-coalition. When German politicians keep on demanding a ‘removal of taboos’ in the German-Israeli relationship, they want to remove this consequence: Minister of Foreign Affairs Fischer made sure that weapons were not exported to Israel anymore, when there was a situation of self-defence, and Federal Chancellor Schroeder can even imagine German soldiers in the Middle East. This is what we protest against. We want to remind of May 8th 1945 as well as May 14th 1948.

Against anti-Semitism, nationalism and anti-Americanism!