All out in Manchester on Saturday 13th December, 12pm, St Peter’s Square, commemorating the 38th anniversary of the First Intifada!
On 8th December 1987, 4 Palestinians were murdered by Israeli soldiers just outside of Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. The next day, Israel fired live ammunition into a crowd, killing 17 year-old Hatem Abu Sisi and wounding 16 others. Palestinians immediately responded with mobilisation, marking the onset of the First Intifada. Protests spread like wildfire across Occupied Palestine and Palestinians utilised various tactics to damage the Zionist regime, including mass strikes, boycotts, and physical resistance against the Israeli military and armed Zionist settlers alike.
Israel’s brutality was met with a sustained uprising from Palestinians who, for nearly 70 years, had been resisting Zionism and British infiltration, confronting systems of colonisation that shaped their daily lives. Fueled by the anger of injustice and dispossession, they channeled this into struggle for meaningful change.
On Saturday 13th, there will be a public display of a replica of the car in which 6-year old Hind Rajab was martyred during the genocide on 29/01/2024. Hind spent her last moments pleading on the phone to emergency workers deliberately prevented by Zionist forces from reaching her. Israel riddled the car with over 300 bullets, slaughtering Hind, 6 of her relatives and 2 paramedics; unequivocal genocidal violence. We must use every opportunity to honour Hind and the hundreds of thousands of martyrs killed by Israel.
Israel has committed countless such atrocities, and yet is still being permitted to retain its illegitimate spot on the international stage. Just this week, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog stated Israel “….deserves to be represented on every stage in the world…”. We know no such settler-colonial enterprise should exist, let alone be celebrated internationally; a sentiment supported by Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands. We cannot stand idly by and allow Israel to continue destroying Palestinian lives. We will not rest until we see Palestinians living in dignity and freedom in their homeland!
