Emergency demonstration No War On Iran 14 June
Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to ignite a full on Middle East war makes this Saturday’s national Palestine demonstration in central London all the more urgent. His illegal strikes on nuclear facilities, oil storage units and residential blocks in Iran could not have happened without the militaristic support of the US and British governments – the same support that has enabled the continuing genocide in Gaza.
Keir Starmer and David Lammy’s responses to Israel’s attacks on Tehran could not have been more meek. They were ‘concerning’, they were ‘concerned’. They talked about the need for de-escalation, while moving fighter jets to the Middle East without parliamentary sanction and still refusing to rule out defending Netanyahu’s murderous regime.
Other ministers have also continued with the “Israel has the right to defend itself” line. How is attacking a country nearly 1,000 miles away defending itself? This is just another lie to justify a genocide and a drive to more war.
Which is why the Palestine coalition has added the slogan No War on Iran as part of our mobilisation for the demonstration. Israel is now bombing five countries in the region, including Palestine, and it is vital that we understand how Netanyahu’s war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, and now in Iran, are inextricably connected to and enabled by Britain’s continued arming of his country.
There are already many sanctions on Iran, yet the Israeli prime minister has deliberately assassinated generals, nuclear scientists and civilians, including many children. He wants to provoke Iran into attacking US, French and British bases because he knows these countries will become directly involved in response. Which is something everyone must say we are not prepared to accept.
May’s national Nakba day demonstration was one of the biggest Palestine marches seen since October 2023. We must do all we can to make this Saturday’s one massive too. We saw the anger of the thousands of people who turned out last Saturday for the emergency Iran demonstration in Parliament Square, with just 24 hours notice.
Yes we’ve had a lot of marches and other protests and actions, and we know that our government continues to allow Netanyahu to act with impunity (although there has been a change in the political rhetoric). But words are not enough and as the world heads towards what could be the worst war yet, we must stay on the streets!
Speakers include founder and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouti, singer and actor Paloma Faith, PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote and TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust, with many others to be announced.
We all know Israeli war crimes in Gaza have not stopped, despite efforts to shut down all communications from there and we will continue in our demands that Britain ends the Gaza genocide by stopping arming Israel immediately, including with the parts for F35 war planes and by flying surveillence flights from the RAF base Akrotiri in Cyprus, and now that it keeps hands off Iran.
We must also keep up our demand that Britain expels the Israeli ambassador and breaks all diplomatic links.
Opposing Israel’s attacks on Iran does not mean we support its regime. But it is for the Iranian people to decide who leads their country, not imperialist nations set on regime change in their own interests. Our movement’s priority must be on stopping Israel’s war crimes.
Source: Labour Outlook