November 29th is UN day of Solidarity with Palestinian people. This year the Palestine Liberation Movement in Sheffield went to town – literally!
Starting with the raising of the flag outside the Town Hall – which the council finally agreed to after much lobbying on the part of activists – a cavalcade of cars gathered at Heeley Retail Park in order to re-inaugrate the motorcade we first did 12 years ago. Winding our way through Heeley, then Sharrow and up to the University, we stopped outside the BBC to make our views clear, and then stopped again opposite the station where we were greeted by magnificent supporters. It seemed surprising that we had many many approving blasts of horns from passing motorists (lightly peppered with the usual racist abuse!).
The cavalcade arrived at Tudor Square for a rally as wet as any could remember but the turnout was still magnificent. Importantly the crowd heard from Nour, a doctor recently returned from Gaza and also from Abdullah, a young Palestinian man who denies the terrible Golda Meir prediction that the ‘…young will forget’.
From Nour we heard of the terrible conditions she had to operate in but also of the amazing resilience and perspective of Palestinian people. This was exemplified by Lubna who consoled Nour when Nour felt emotionally drained. ‘What do you mean?’ replied Lubna when Nour asked how they coped with the loss of all they had had. ‘Look at the sky’, Lubna said, ‘Look at the sky. There is no destruction there. The buildings are gone but the sky of Gaza remains’.
Later that day, a crowd of supporters gathered at the Cathedral to witness the arrest of 17 people who defied the ridiculous law proscribing Palestine Action. Below is a magnificent report from Graham Rowe on his blog ‘Tell The Truth Sheffield’:
