Londoners filled the Westminster Bridge next to parliament after marching through downtown and chanting slogans for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They demanded the government stop supplying arms to the Zionist regime and expel its ambassador to the UK.
The protesters were heard chanting “shame on you” and “who do you serve, who do you protect?” while others were seen waving Palestinian flags and holding placards reading “end occupation” and “free Palestine”.
Some of them wore masks bearing the faces of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden and raised their hands, which were stained with red paint, in a sign of bloodshed in Gaza and the two leaders’ unconditional support for Israel.
Similar rallies held in other British cities amid growing anger at the killing of the oppressed Palestinians over the past three months.
The Free Palestine Coalition made up of many organization, including Sisters Uncut, Black Lives Matter UK, London for a Free Palestine, and the Palestinian Youth Movement” called for the protest and said that they will be “blockading a well-known location in London”.
Saturday’s demonstrations have turned into a political movement in the UK. Last week, Brits thronged London's Oxford Street in the midst of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, chanting slogans against Israeli leaders for the ongoing massacres in Gaza.
Growing anti-Israeli sentiment
Meanwhile, calls are growing to end diplomatic ties with Israel, with Britons signing a petition to demand the expulsion of the regime’s ambassador Tzipi Hotovely from London because of her support for the genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The petition which was organized by the World's Platform for Change received more than 80,000 signatures in a day, according to the Anadolu News Agency.
“While the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank continues, Israel's ambassador has openly used the language of genocide and supports the carrying out of a genocidal act”, the petition states.
Under the British law, a public petition must be discussed in parliament if the number of signatories exceeds 100,000.
Data show that some 80% of Brits are in support of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They are also angry at their government’s unwavering support for the Zionist regime.
PM Sunak once claimed that a ceasefire will embolden the Palestinian resistance, saying a "sustainable ceasefire" is possible on the condition that Hamas stop rocket attacks and release Israeli captives held in Gaza.
However, the British premier corrected his stance amid public anger and the support from his own party colleagues for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The Zionist regime, with the backing of the West, the US in particular, launched its genocidal war on Gaza that has claimed nearly 23,000 Palestinian lives so far, mostly women and children.
The regime made the October 7 “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation by Hamas a pretext for its bloody campaign in Gaza. But the Palestinian resistance group says the anti-Israel operation was in response to decades of crimes committed by the Zionists in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
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