Thank you to all 80 people who made this event so heart warming.
Photos will be here in a few days.
Free Gaza, Free Palestine
Statement by WAPSC for the FREE GAZA VIGIL – 27 Oct 2023
Worthing & Adur Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called the FREE GAZA VIGIL to provide a space for the people of Worthing to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Palestine. Although our hearts and our minds are naturally focused on Gaza, we’re here to show our solidarity for all Palestinians – including those in our community, throughout historic Palestine and around the world.
We’re here to use our collective voice to demand:
- An immediate ceasefire.
- Immediate humanitarian aid for Gaza (food, water, fuel & medical supplies).
- An end to Israel’s siege of Gaza.
- An end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Israel’s latest war on Gaza has so far left over 5,800 Palestinians dead, and over 13,000 injured (as of 22 Oct). Israel’s apartheid regime is carrying out militarised violence on the Palestinian people on an unthinkable scale. In just the first week Israel dropped over 6,000 bombs on the Palestinian people of Gaza.
Amid this horrific bloodshed, the HM UK government and opposition have failed to demand a ceasefire, uphold international law or protect Palestinian lives. They have refused to call-out the State of Israel for its war crimes. Moreover, our political leaders, including the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, have emboldened Israel’s war crimes by offering uncritical and ‘unequivocal support’ to Israel.
The UK government has meagrely pledged to increase aid to the Gaza Strip. But without urgent action to end Israel’s ongoing bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip — which includes a total blockade on aid, food, water, electricity and medicine — this pledge will be too little and too late.
Israel has acted with impunity throughout its ongoing, three-quarter century-long violent occupation of the land of the Palestinians. The international community must work to uphold international law, and protect Palestinians from this brutal onslaught.
The UK government must do everything in its power to support the Palestinian people. This means calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the blockade to allow aid and humanitarian access, and protection from ethnic cleansing. The UK must end its complicity with Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.
On Saturday 14 October 150,000 people marched in London in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza. On Saturday 21 October 300,000 again marched in London. Across the country — and throughout the world —people are openly and actively supporting Palestinians. The UK government and opposition are belatedly rolling back on their most extreme rhetoric. The pressure we have created together is working.
We must keep up the pressure. The Worthing Free Gaza Vigil is our town’s small but significant part of that collective pressure. The people of Gaza and Palestine will see are supporting them in their darkest hour. And our politicians will hear our calls to show leadership to end the horror and carnage.
