Pro-Palestine protestors speak at rally outside College Main Entrance

Students, staff and members of the public congregated on Wednesday afternoon outside the College Main Entrance, waving Palestinian flags, displaying banners and calling upon passersby to join them in bringing attention to the plight of Palestinian civilians. 

“This is the start of something here,” said an organiser, addressing a huddle of 15 students at the beginning of the rally. “This is not an abstraction here, there is a very real danger of actual genocide in Palestine,” he continued. 

He rejected the idea suggested by “mass media” that “everything started on 7th October”. “It started in 1948 with the forcible partition of historic Palestine.” 

He called upon those present to “spread the word” and “build confidence” by leafleting and joining mailing lists.

Students take aim at Imperial

“Our university’s response to the war has been very weak,” said a recent graduate with Palestinian heritage. 

She accused Imperial President Hugh Brady of “not taking things seriously enough”, calling his comments thus far “disgraceful”. 

She was especially upset by Brady’s comments at last week’s graduation ceremony. 

Brady started his graduation address by delivering a message on “the terrorist attacks in Israel and the rapidly escalating conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” 

“Obviously, I condemn Hamas. But using language like that to describe terrorist attacks one group of people [Israelis] – and then using using passive language like ‘escalating conflict’ to describe larger attacks on another group of people [Palestinians] is implying one set of lives is better than the other.” 

“I don’t think he should speak in our name when a lot of his student body don’t support what he is saying. I don’t think he should have made graduation political either.” 

“My relatives in Palestine were all watching me graduate. I spent the rest of the ceremony concerned about them, not enjoying my graduation.” 

Abdul, an undergraduate student, said both of his grandmothers fled Palestine in 1948, after the ‘Nakba’ (mass displacement of Palestinian Arabs during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War). He called Imperial’s response “a bowl full of nothing”. 

“They always say the same thing, and it’s not really a response, it’s the bare minimum.”

Abdul expressed his wish for a free Palestine, or a free land where both Israelis and Palestinians could live together in peace.

Heckler squares up to protestors

The rally was disrupted an hour in, when a member of the public started chanting, “F***ing terrorists”, and squared up to a member of the Social Workers Party who was present at the event. Imperial security staff were quick to intervene, escorting him away to chants of “Free, free Palestine”, and “Palestine will be free”.

“We humans are one family”

Not all present at the protest were members of the College. A Jewish woman told passersby she was attending the rally to campaign against the actions of the Israeli state and emphasise that not all Jewish people were Zionists. 

‘I am here because I am a human,” said one 79-year-old Egyptian man, a retired customer services representative. “We humans are one family, our father and mother are Adam and Eve.” 

He explained that he was at the rally because of his own experiences as a young child growing up in the Sinai peninsula. In the mid-1950s, Israel conducted reprisal operations in response to incursions by Arab militants from Syria, Egypt and Jordan. 

“It was 1954. Me and my friends were playing football in the street, and suddenly the Israelis shot us.” 

“I have three bullets in my leg,” he said, pointing down and pulling up his trousers to reveal three faded, circular scars. “Two of my friends were killed.” 

“My hometown used to be Christians, Jews, Muslims. We used to live as one family. I can’t forgive what happened, but I want peace.”

‘‘If Palestine was doing the same to Jewish people, I would stand with the Jewish people. All of us need to stand together for justice.”

“This is not about different religions against each other, it is about solidarity and unity,” the organisers told Felix. “We want equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis in the region.” 

“Civilian deaths on any side are not acceptable. It is right to condemn Hamas’s terrorist attacks on civilians – tragic those Israeli lives were lost. But it is possible to do this while also calling out actions of Israel and advocating for Palestinian rights, who have felt a sense of injustice for the past 75 years.’

“The aim of this [rally] is to talk to people, make them aware, get them involved in the movement. We want to evolve it into something a bit bigger and more regular, and keep the discussion going.” The organisers said they had received “several dozen” signups at the event. 

The College has been approached for comment.