Sheffield March for Palestine calls for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.

A vote for Labour is a vote for Genocide.

Yesterday’s Sheffield March for Palestine passed two shops in particular that protesters say are complicit in Genocide. Lidl on High Street and Marks and Spencer on Fargate. The owner of Lidl is a Zionist and a huge investor in Israeli tech companies. Marks and Spencer stock various goods grown on stolen Palestinian land such as dates and have long supported Zionism.

On the other hand their was much praise for Lush as the march reached Fargate. Lush famously shut it stores in the UK on 3rd September with a notice in its windows saying STOP STARVING GAZA – WE ARE CLOSED IN SOLIDARITY.

Here’s the video of the march.

Green Councillor Alexi Dimond talked about how debates in the Council Chamber had still not resulted in any meaningful action on Palestine and held the Labour and Lib Dem Councillors firmly responsible for this. He also mentioned the Maccabi football decision. This is what I wrote on Bluesky about this.

Kier Starmer is so wrong to challenge the decision to stop the Maccabi fans from travelling to Aston Villa. Maccabi fans are infamous for their violence and deeply racist chanting. https://greenparty.org.uk/2025/10/17/we-need-a-sporting-and-cultural-boycott-of-all-israeli-teams-say-greens/

They attacked Arab residents in Amsterdam and sung “death to the Arabs” and “there are no schools in Gaza because there are no children left”.

Many of the Maccabi fans will have served in the IDF during the Genocide and should be arrested for war crimes. The good people of Birmingham should not have to tolerate these thugs on their streets and the police have got enough on their hands without this.

It is not anti-semitic to oppose racists on our streets! https://bdsmovement.net/news/palestinians-condemn-violent-racist-rampage-and-incitement-genocide-by-maccabi-tel-aviv-fans

Please use this Palestine Solidarity Campaign tool to write to Aston Villa, the FA and EUFA demanding that the match should not go ahead.

The news that Tommy Robinson is now rallying his supporters before the match is a sure sign that there will be trouble.

Here are the other speakers from Saturday’s march.

Abdullah kicked off with an inspirational speech. He said, “They destroy schools, we build knowledge. They bomb hospitals, we heal. They kill journalists, we become their echoes. They drop bombs, we drop ballots. Because every truth spoken is an act of resistance. Every vote is a vote of courage. It is a strike for justice. Sheffield, city of steel, city of struggle. Our hearts have always beat for the oppressed, and they still do. From Sheffield to Gaza, from Sheffield to Palestine, your fight is our fight. Your freedom is our freedom!”

Emily explained how Sheffield Apartheid Free Zones are organising door knocking campaigns in Sharrow, Nether Edge and Park Hill, persuading people not to buy Israeli fruit and vegetables.

Ayesha spoke for Sheffield 4 Palestine a grass roots charity group raising money for aid to Palestine. She said, ” I want to pause here to acknowledge something uncomfortable. Many of us speaking out today came from a place of privilege. We go home to warm beds, clean water, and lives that, while stressful in their own way, are largely safe. We are not waking up to drones or burying our children under rubble. But even from this distance, hasn’t it been overwhelming? Hasn’t it broken something in all of us? We’ve watched bodies pulled from ruins on our feeds. We’ve seen lifeless children, victims of war machines funded by the very government we pay taxes to. We’ve seen the image of decapitated babies still in a nappy. We’ve heard stories of Ahmed, whose body was recovered in pieces, placed in a bag by his brother. We’ve seen the eyes of wrongly imprisoned Palestinians, eyes that carry a weight no human being should have to bear. We’ve watched children sobbing over the bodies of their parents, begging for help that never arrived. And still, somehow the world moves on, but we haven’t. Because our anger has given us fuel. Our compassion has set our hearts on fire. And our moral clarity, however painful, has made one thing certain. Silence is not an option.”

Iman Mohammed Azam spoke out about the attack on pro Palestinian protesters in Islamabad, Pakistan, who were met with live bullets and tear gas by the authorities. The number of dead is unknown and the bodies are yet to be returned to the families.

Jonny made a powerful speech on behalf of Jews against Israeli Apartheid. He said “So as well as campaigning for the liberation of Palestine, Sheffield Jews against Israeli Apartheid joins with others to fight racism and to deexceptionalize anti-semitism. And we look to challenge Zionism within the Jewish community. And I want to talk about these two things in the in the context of the rise of fascist culture in the UK and also the terrible attack on the synagogue on Yom Kippur a few weeks ago. We join in the wider fight against racism because Jewish safety, and this is a watch word for Zionists, is not best guaranteed by an ethno-fascist state by joint action across our communities being each other’s advocates and if needed being each other’s protectors and we challenge Zionism in the Jewish community because its attachment to Israel is shameful. It forms a key pillar for UK establishment support for Israel and it is an ideology that has buried the essence of Judaism in its land grabby grasp. The Palestine Liberation Movement has been asked since the Manchester attack to be silent, to come off the streets. We are told this is inflammatory and it’s the root cause of those murders. We know this is highly, highly unlikely. And I would respond. It’s not the Palestine Liberation Movement that puts Jewish people in danger, but Israel and its allies by claiming to do this for all Jews. It is not the Palestine Liberation Movement that is full of hate, but Israel and its allies, by murdering 80,000 people and more. And is not the Palestine Liberation Movement that should be silent, but Israel and their allies like Kier Starmer, who would have racist Israeli thugs marching through our streets. So what if while we shout out for Palestine Liberation, some people feel uncomfortable. So they should if they’re allies of Israel. This does not equate to lack of safety. Safety is undermined by the UK government stance, by its broader support for the Israeli narrative. And it’s undermined as well by its funding, a funded program on anti-semitism across all universities that will ignore other racisms, will ignore Islamophobia, and it sectionalizes Jewish people. It is a course that’s being promoted just as the perpetrators of this genocide, who say it was carried out for all Jews. They’re getting off scot-free. That is where safety is weak. Look at us here. Look at in this fantastic assembly, the diversity here. Look at the person next to you. They are your comrade. They are your brother. They are your sister. And as we stand on the precipice of rising racism, with symbols of empire and subjugation all around us, our safety is only guaranteed by our continued collaboration, our continued mutual support and understanding of what unites us and ties us together. And without a doubt, a large strand of our unity is in shouting out for a free Palestine. So we must not be silent as Shabbana Mahmoud would have us, but cry out loud and strong together. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! “

Maria from Chile Solidarity Network, displayed a t-shirt she had bought in 2003 with the logo “Killer Coke”. She said “I bought this t-shirt following a public meeting about Colombia. Coca-Cola was in Colombia using the paramilitaries to target the trade unionists in the bottling factories in Colombia. Not only were they intimidating them, but they were making them disappear. and they were murdering them and their crime, for wanting better working conditions for the workers in the bottling factory. After that meeting, buying that t-shirt, I researched a bit more about Coca-Cola and I found out that at the same time in India, there was thousands of people coming out in protest against their contamination of the water from their bottling warehouses, factories, but also because they were giving the local farmers free fertilizer to use, which was basically the sludge that come from their bottling companies that was contaminated and included things like lead. So these farmers were using this for the crops that then poison themselves and the people that were sending the goods to.”

Today Coca Coca-Cola steals the water from Palestinian land to manufacture their obesity drink for Israelis. Don’t buy Coca-Cola!

Palestinian activist Siham also railed against the Labour Party. (It was very much the theme of the rally!) She said “Bodies of Palestinians have returned with clear signs of torture. Hands tied behind their backs, eyes blind further, rope tied around their necks. Marks of beatings and burns. Suffering so obvious, so obviously displaced that all it says on their certificate is simply deceased. Palestinian captives that were released describe extensive torture, being kept naked, shot with rubber bullet, subjected to electrocution, starvation, cuttings and beatings, and being threatened with harm to their children. This is not an isolated account. This is a testimony of a system cruelty in inflicted upon human beings. This is not collateral damage .It is a deliberate systematic assault. If you stand for Palestine, you cannot stand with a government that comes complicit with the oppression of Palestinian suffering. Labour, a political entity that supports Israel’s occupation, is part of this violence. In the year that Labour has been in power, there has been more arm sales to Israel than there was with the Tories. To all the local Labour MPs, I urge you to take inspiration from Zahra Sultana and resign from Labour and be true to your conscience

Independent Councillor Qais Al-Ahdal (darnall and Tinsley) also challenged Labour Councillors to leave the party. He highlighted the artwork of one of the protesters commemorating Saleh Al Jafarwi.