A guest blog by Jon Cowley
Every day in every newspaper and on every television channel people are bombarded with images of starving people and emaciated children. At least 133 have died of starvation in Gaza in the last few days, including 87 children. The World Health Organisation says that these numbers will start to soar now.
Meanwhile everyday there are relentless daily reports of Palestinians being killed, often while queueing for food, by Israeli soldiers and bombs – 63 on Sunday, 53 on Saturday and hundreds over the last few weeks. 8,657 since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18th.
Before the advent of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and Israel’s recently intensified starvation policy in Gaza, aid distribution was conducted through 400 UN-run centres. The system was simple and efficient: families received text notifications with pickup times, and food was distributed within an hour.
The GHF sites, in contrast, are militarized zones with no oversight where aid-seekers are herded into glorified cages, hoping to reach food before the gates close — or before soldiers open fire. Distribution times are announced unpredictably through a Facebook page, sometimes with only five or ten minutes’ notice.
This weekend saw a surge of protest in Sheffield as hundreds of people demonstrated their distress and anger at this “man-made” famine and the killings.
On Friday evening dozens of protesters sat down in the train station foyer banging pots and pans as part of a national day of action to say “Stop Starving Gaza” as Sheffield responded to a call from Bisan in Gaza: “This is a call for action, because the sound of our empty stomachs and the voice of humanity must be louder than their brutality. Israel has been blocking food, water and medicine from entering Gaza for five months. It’s time for Justice. No more oppression. Bang the pots for the most just cause in the world today”
As Hilary Smith one the organisers said: “The noise that we made banging our pots mirrors the rage we feel that 2 million Palestinian face starvation and world leaders do nothing”.
And then on Saturday hundreds marched in silence round the city centre ending with a mass die-in at the Cathedral concourse.
“Passers by stood, stared and wept too, as they watched hundreds of us bearing silent witness to the massacre of tens of thousands”, Hilary Smith.
Musheir El Farra, himself a Palestinian from Khan Younis in the Gaza strip and long time resident of Sheffield, said: “This weekend was a true expression of the people of Sheffield siding with humanity, and showing outrage at the ongoing Genocide in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
“It was heartening to see people of all background regardless of ethnicity, colour, or religion united, sometimes in tears, in their support for the Palestinians who are being massacred, forcefully evacuated, and recently being starved.
“The Palestinians are privileged to have to have such a great number of Sheffielders feeling their pain.”
And Annie O’Gara, chair of the Sheffield Palestine Coalition said “This march strengthened our resolve never to give up, believing as we all do that justice must prevail”.
This film perfectly captures the atmosphere in the march:
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