Over 5000 people made their way to Belfast’s city centre on Saturday (January 10^th) to protest the ongoing war in Palestine. The successful showing of opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza was addressed by church, union and political leaders, as well as human rights activists.

UNISON’s Patricia Mc Keown gave a powerful address to the crowd from the Platform outside city hall, condemning the Israeli government and calling on them to halt their attacks on the people of Gaza. She also appealed to the media to adequately, fairly and truthfully report what is occurring presently in occupied Palestine.

Sue Pentel from the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign also delivered a powerful message to rebut attempts to indict protestors as anti-Semitic. Sue said that she and 1000’s of Jewish people across the world including within Israel, who this week were also protesting, are not in support of the actions taken by Israel against the Palestinian people and nation.

Mairead Corrigan made a heartfelt plea to the international community and those in power to exert pressure to end the inhumanity at play in the Middle East and particularly to end the slaughter of children who represent one third of Palestinian casualties thus far.

ICTU’s President Peter bunting appealed to all sections of Irish society not to view the demonstration through the narrow prism of sectarianism and to come out in condemnation of the brutality unfolding in the Middle East. His call was echoed by senior representatives from all faiths on the platform.

As the protest concluded on the 15^th consecutive day of unbroken air strikes and a full blown land invasion of Gaza, the death toll had already risen to over 800 people in what is the worst assault Palestinians have endured for many years.

ICTU and UNISON have pledged all the support they can give and harshly criticised the EU, UN and western political leaders for a lack of action in what has now turned into a humanitarian disaster, with close to 1000 casualties, hundreds of whom are children and the majority of whom are innocent civilians.