Some 150 Brits and Israelis have gathered in Parliament Square in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of protesters in Israel, expressing their collective national grief and anger at a failure to bring the hostages out of Gaza.
Attendees of the gathering, which was organised by the British-Israeli grassroots movement We Democracy, mourned the six slain Gaza hostages found over the weekend, while voicing their anger at Netanyahu for allegedly perpetuating the crisis and squandering opportunities to save lives. Similar gatherings took place in Cambridge and Oxford.
The events were born from a combination of “deep frustration, sadness, and anger”, We Democracy co-founder Orit Eyal-Fibeesh said. “It was organised as a show of solidarity and support with the many thousands in Israel, but we also wanted to grieve ourselves, we wanted to show our frustration.
“We wanted to say quite bluntly to Netanyahu that had he pushed harder to prioritise the hostages and signed a deal back in July, they might have been home by now.”
We Democracy protests in London (Photo: Aviel Lewis)
Hundreds of thousands of people held rallies across Israel over the weekend after the murder by Hamas of Ori Danino, 25 Carmel Gat, 40, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27 and Eden Yerushalmi, 24.
Almost 300,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Tel Aviv alone in the largest protest to take place in the country since October 7.
Though there were no speeches given at the gathering in Parliament Square, a few words were said by organisers to “set the scene” while attendees held hostage placards and sang.
Chants called for the hostages to be brought home now and for Netanyahu to agree to a deal that would see them safely returned “before it is too late”, said Eyal-Fibeesh.
“We were calling on everybody involved, but first and foremost Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, to release the hostages,” Orit said. “We were calling on everyone from the British community to the messianic extremist members in Israel’s government to stop the nonsense. Stop talking about resettling Gaza and focus on getting the hostages home, however [few] are still alive. Time is already up.”
We Democracy protests in Cambridge
A statement issued by We Democracy said the failure to secure the hostages after 11 months in captivity is “not just a failure of diplomacy, it is a failure of humanity”. It accuses Netanyahu of “failing the hostages, their families and the people of Israel. He must be held accountable for his reckless actions,”
The statement added: “While Hamas and Sinwar were the ones who murdered the hostages, it was Netanyahu and the Israeli government who abandoned them, leaving them to die.”
The protests against the Israeli government’s judicial reform review – We Democracy’s original raison d’etre – were put on hold in light of Hamas’s invasion of Israel in October last year.
“For now, we have an obligation to the hostages and their families, so that is where our focus lies. It is inconceivable that we are still having to be so active and talk about this, 11 months later. We are heartbroken, broken and devastated, so there were a lot of tears on Sunday.”
