Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Report and photos of Kirkcaldy demonstration for Gaza Saturday 2nd August 2014

Paul O'Hanlon | 03.08.2014 12:29 | Flotilla to Gaza | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Palestine | London | World

Report of a protest in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland against the continuing carnage in Gaza, one of many demonstrations taking part across the country and indeed across the world.












As the slaughter in Gaza continues there was a march and rally in Kirkcaldy, Fife on Saturday 2nd August. In driving rain the gathering listened to speakers including Cara Hilton Labour MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament) for Dunfermline and Mick Napier the constituency coordinator of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The event was chaired by Bill Mair of Fife SPSC.

Cara spoke of the half a million people displaced by the violence and how Gaza’s population of 1.8 million was being collectively punished. To loud cheers she called for a boycott of Israel.

The gathering marched off along the High Street Kirkcaldy and along Kirk Wynd with loud chanting of `Free, Free Palestine` , `Viva, Viva Palestina` , and `Boycott Israel`. Passing Fife College the rally assembled at the square by the Town House around 1.30 and listened to a number of speakers.

Susan Karim who organised a march for Iraqi orphans in 2003 reminded everyone that Gaza is surrounded by air, sea and land and is like a concentration camp. Israel is the only country in the area that has nuclear weapons. If any other country did what Israel is doing they would be bombed like Iraq. She said passionately that we must stop the genocide.
Then Roderick Campbell Scottish National Party MSP for North East Fife spoke saying that the Israeli attack was totally disproportionate and called for a UN enquiry and an end to the blockade of Gaza.

Next was Alex Rowley Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for Cowdenbeath. He thanked everyone for turning up in the bad weather and voiced of the need to build up a movement and for an end to the siege of Gaza.

Then Peter Lockhart who is Labour Party Councillor for the ward of Cowdenbeath called for Fife Council to boycott all Israeli goods. He emphasised that he was not anti-Jewish but was against Israel’s policies.

Dr Sarah Glynn of the University of Western Scotland in Paisley said on behalf of Scottish Jews for a Just Peace that criticism of Israel and of Zionism is not anti-Semitic. She told of the turning away of Jewish refugees by the US and Britain during the Second World War. She went on to say that Israel’s actions endanger Jews around the world. She opined that the concept of an ethnic Jewish state is a cancer at the heart of Israel. She also said that Israel should give the right of return to Palestinians.
She finished her speech by saying `Free, Free Palestine! `.

A short message from former MSP Tommy Sheridan was read saying `Stop the slaughter, stop the grotesque inhumanity, in the name of humanity the world must boycott Israel. `

The last speaker was Dr Bashir Oudeh who is a medical doctor and he pointed out that if the carnage in Gaza was translated in to American terms it would be like 300,000 Americans being killed and 1.5 million being injured.

The event finished a little after 2pm. The whole afternoon passed peacefully and interestingly there were a number of police officers present whose job description is `Police Liaison Officer` the acronym for which is PLO.

As well as Kirkcaldy there were parallel events in Aberdeen and Glasgow though disappointingly none of these were reported on the BBC Scotland website. This is unusual as the BBC website almost always has a report of a few hundred words and a photo of any anti-war protest. The Glasgow event was said to have attracted about 3,000 people yet was invisible as far as the Beeb is concerned. At the time of writing on Sunday lunchtime (3rd August) the BBC main news website has a photo of the Israeli soldier who was thought to have been kidnapped but is now presumed dead. That picture has been there since Friday. There is a report of yet another Israeli attack on a UN school in Gaza but remarkably this is given less prominence.

The local Courier newspaper did have a report of the demonstration:
 http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/fife/hundreds-gather-in-kirkcaldy-for-gaza-demonstration-1.503660

There will be many vigils and demonstrations for Gaza in the coming days including a national demonstration in London on Saturday August 9th.








Paul O'Hanlon
- e-mail: o_hanlon@hotmail.com

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech