An international collective calling itself the ‘Global March to Gaza’ has coordinated a march with more 4,000 people from 54 different countries around the world. They will be walking on foot through the Sinai desert to the Rafah border crossing at Gaza, with the aim of demanding an immediate stop to Israel’s genocide. The international group of marchers will also demand that Israel re-opens the border to humanitarian aid.
You can support some of the marchers with a crowdfunder here.
Global March to Gaza
A huge array of peace and humanitarian organisations from around the globe are supporting the Global March to Gaza.
Over 300 people are travelling from the United Kingdom including several from Wales to join the march.
CND Cymru is supporting the humanitarian initiative. It is sending an official delegation to join the march to Rafah. The protest pilgrimage will involve a three-day, 30-mile hike through the Sania desert from Al Arish in Egypt, to the Gaza border. They aim to reach Rafah by 15 June.
Marchers piling pressure on UK politicians
Pembrokeshire campaigner Jim Scott, along with several others, have already arrived in Cairo. They will join the march when it sets off on 13 June as part of the official delegation.
Upon his arrival in Egypt, Scott published an open letter to Pembrokeshire’s Labour MP, Henry Tufnell and other elected representatives. These included Eluned Morgan MS and secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens. It heavily criticises them for their inaction over the Gaza genocide.
The letter begins:
I am writing to inform you that as one of your constituents and as a citizen of the United Kingdom, I feel I must act where you have not acted, and take steps to prevent the further genocide in Gaza where your Government has failed to do so.
In fact worse, the UK government has been actively complicit and assisted the genocide, by continuing to authorise RAF flights over Gaza for Israel and continuing to arm and fund them despite the confirmed slaughter of over 60,000 innocent civilians.
As the British government and yourself have failed in your international duty and legal obligation to effectively oppose and prevent war crimes, ethnic cleansing and Genocide in occupied Palestine over the last 19 months, I feel I have no choice but to take action myself.
The letter also makes reference to the potential dangers the marchers will face, adding:
I am aware that by marching 30 miles on foot through the Sinai desert to the Rafah border we may face arrest, detention, deportation or imprisonment. A worse outcome might be that if we do reach Rafah which is a militarised zone, we may face military aggression and could even be killed ourselves by the Israeli army which first threatened to militarily attack ‘The Madleen’ Freedom flotilla, a humanitarian ship which was attempting to reach Gaza by sea to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza and which had Greta Thunberg and 11 other humanitarians on board. Then illegally attacked and boarded the ship which was in international waters, sailing under a British flag and kidnapped all 12 volunteers.
‘Dehumanisation of an entire people’
Drawing the links to history Scott added:
It is no exaggeration to highlight that Israel’s current war crimes echo the crimes of the Nazi’s in the 1940’s. Demonstrated by the dehumanisation of an entire people by Israel who talk of Palestinians as ‘nothing but animals’ and slaughter them as such, exactly like how Jews were dehumanised to enable and justify a holocaust.
Similarly, as with the fight against Fascism then, and the struggle against South African apartheid, only those of us who resist, oppose and fight back against Israel’s crimes now will be on the right side of history.
The letter concludes by imploring Tufnell to follow several measures including that he demands within his own Party for the UK government to push for Israel to open a humanitarian corridor via Rafah, saying:
History will judge you harshly for the actions you take or fail to take at this precious moment, as thousands of innocent Palestinians are starved and massacred by Israel with the active support of our UK government and Military.
In acknowledgement of Tufnell’s recent contributions in parliament Scott said:
In this instance, please tell us what it means to campaign only for the recognition of a Palestinian state when the UK is effectively enabling ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank and genocide in Gaza by not taking meaningful steps such as ending arms sales and proper economic sanctions on the entire Israeli state, not just two Israeli ministers. Platitudes will not end a genocide.
Thousands book last-minute flights to join Global March to Gaza
Many of the 4,000 global marchers have signed up in the last few days and have been frantically organising last-minute travel to join the march.
Pembrokeshire local art curator and mother of four, Tasmin, described herself as an “empathetic human”. She explained that she is joining the delegation because:
Yesterday I saw four bewildered children bleeding on a hospital bed, from another bomb attack. How can I carry on as normal? With tens of thousands murdered as Israel continues to destroy and burn people alive, I cannot rest. I cannot stay silent. We have witnessed atrocities enacted with impunity for 20 months. Poets killed, journalists assassinated, children snipered, fathers murdered for being hungry, newborns denied critical care and left to die, children orphaned, women shot – the crimes are colossal. I have protested, lobbied, fundraised, talked, disrupted.
Now is the time to mobilise our passion and humanity. Alongside the 12 hearts aboard the Freedom Flotilla I endeavour to do what our governments have failed – rise and move to show it’s the people who will make the difference.
We are united for justice and solidarity for Palestine.
Stop Starmer’s militarism: aid must flow
A spokesperson for CND Cymru said:
We are proud to support this important march by sending a delegation.
In the face of the genocide of the Palestinian people, western governments have been silent. In being part of this march we are telling the Palestinian people we bear witness. And we will not forgive those who have committed these acts of brutality.
They also carry hope. As the Madleen and Conscience carried both material aid and the hope and goodwill of the people of the world, so too does this international march.
We must not be silent, we must be vigilant. We must continue doing all we can to get our governments to end the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Global March to Gaza shows citizens will act where governments fail
Jo Barrow, 60, who has also travelled to Egypt spoke about her reasons for joining the march:
I did nothing deserving to enjoy the privileges that comes with being a 60 yr old, white, north European living in relative peace, who has recognised ‘rights’ & who has access to food, clean water, medicines etc.
I could have been born in Palestine and had my home torn down, or in Gaza where I would live in a daily hell surrounded by death, trying to survive against all the odds. My children, my grandchildren, could be any one of the children we see on our screens, from the safety of our hand held devices on social media maimed, hungry & dying.
Yet when we humanise this, when we see & feel beyond the abstraction of numbers, when we allow the horror of their daily lived reality to really sink in, how could I not lend my presence to this cause.
We’ve got to get the aid in. We have to get world leaders to act in accordance with humanity, for the sake of our collective humanity.
It is not yet known whether the Egyptian authorities will authorise the march. However, the organisers have made it clear that the focus of the march is to raise awareness and put pressure on Israel to open the border. So, they remain hopeful that the marchers reach Rafah unhindered over the three days it will take to make the walk, camping in tents along the way.
The tide is turning
Adam Johannes, of Cardiff Stop the War Coalition speaking in support of the march added:
The Welsh government is welcoming arms companies into our communities – including those linked to the oppression of Palestinians – under the banner of “economic development.” This is not the Wales we dream of.
We must remember the radical imagination of Lucas Aerospace arms factory workers in the 1970s, who proposed building kidney machines instead of killing machines, wind turbines instead of weapons. That spirit lives on in Campaign Against Arms Trade, whose Arms to Renewables research shows we can move from militarism to green, socially useful jobs without job losses.
While foreign policy lies with Westminster, Wales is not voiceless. We can choose a Peace-First approach rejecting complicity in war, opposing UK arms sales to oppressive regimes, and building cultural, educational, and trade links with peoples struggling for justice, like Palestine.
It’s time to end state support for arms industries. Wales can and must lead in building an economy rooted in care, sustainability, and global solidarity.
The delegation say they have been very moved by the high levels of support offered from many people who have pledged to donate to a crowdfunder. This is to help with the costs of attending the march. With a separate 7,000-strong aid convoy also heading to Gaza from Tunisia, they believe the global tide is turning against the genocide and that ultimately Israel, along with those who aided it, will be held accountable for their war crimes.
Featured image supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.