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Pro-Palestine protesters march down Park Street
Drivers stopped to take pictures as dozens of protesters marched down Park Street in the heavy rain crying out “Free, Free Palestine”.
This protest, which took place on Sunday afternoon, was the latest in a series of recent pro-Palestinian protests organised by the Bristol Palestine Alliance which have seen the top of Cabot Tower covered with a Palestine flag and a demonstration outside Barclays in Broadmead.
The Sunday protest targeted the University of Bristol which has relationships with defence companies that protestors claim are helping arm Israel in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
is needed now More than ever
The non-profit Demilitarise Education claim that the University’s Defence Partnerships are worth £92,890,934.
Protestors used prams to recognise children who have died in Gaza
Protesters included former University of Bristol students, Green councillor Mohamed Makawi, members of Extinction Rebellion, the Bristol North Socialist Party and the pacifist Women in Black group.
The protesters first gathered on Tyndall Avenue at midday where they heard speeches from several speakers, including former University of Bristol students and controversial academic David Miller, who was found by a tribunal to have been unfairly dismissed from the University earlier this year.
Miller had been dismissed in 2021 following comments he had made about Israel and Jewish student groups at the University.
David Miller said that the “resistance movement is winning”
As well as directing criticisms at the University of Bristol and vice-chancellor Evelyn Welch, speakers also talked about a motion that recently passed at the Students’ Union, which introduced a definition of anti-Palestinian racism definition; the relationship between pro-Palestinian and climate activism and the recent death of a prominent Palestinian surgeon – Dr Adnan Al-Bursh – in an Israeli prison.
One speaker said they were “furious at the hypocrisy of the West, which on Remembrance Day solemnly mourned its dead while it supports and encourages the outrageous assault on Gaza”.
Dozens of activists with diverse backgrounds and ages joined the march
When he was called to speak, Miller said: “There is a resistance movement all over the world to occupation.
“And slowly but surely the resistance movement is winning… Zionism is collapsing. I don’t want to see a socialist Israel.
“I want to see the end of Israel, the elimination of Israel, because otherwise we will not have a Palestinian state in the full territory of occupied Palestine from the river to the sea.”
After the speeches, protestors walked down Woodland Road and then Park Street before proceeding in front of City Hall and ending the day next to Bristol Cathedral.
All photos: Rob Browne
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