Rally for Palestine – Edinburgh St Giles to Colonial HQ to Bute House
Yesterday Fiona and Marlene were over in Edinburgh for the demo in support of Palestine. It was one of hundreds taking place around the UK. it started off fairly quietly in front of St Giles Cathedral but that space was soon filled with protesters.
After some speeches, we set off down the Royal Mile. And this being the height of the tourist season we were soon walking past visitors from all over the world.
First stop was the plaza in from of the Brit Colonial HQ building, otherwise known as the flagship UK Government Hub. First was a heart-rending speech by Palestinian Doha Abu Amer. She was followed by former Edinburgh MP Tommy Sheppard, and journalist Lesley Riddoch.
The second half of the march was over to Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister. Protesters stood at his front door making their view clear. Mr Swinney – not at home yesterday – has made his views clear about the Israeli occupation of Gaza. As has the Scottish National Party. One of the themes in yesterday’s speeches was to allow Palestinians to join their families in UK. Last year Scottish Government Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart wrote a letter to the UK Government calling for it to support a Families Visa Scheme to allow Palestinians in Gaza to join family in Scotland.
Thousands of us went on this event. The words ‘Palestine’ and ‘Action’ appeared – in separate sentences – on banners. Two men were arrested on the day. A third man was arrested two days later. In England about 100 people were arrested for doing much the same thing as we did.
“What does Gaza have to do with independence?”
We have had some comments asking why we choose to podcast from rallies and marches about Gaza. We have thought about these questions and answered them on our blog – Why Do We Make Podcasts about Palestine Demos?
The video of this podcasts is on our YouTube Channel here
Last year we were at the Glasgow demo protesting at the BBC’s language when reporting Palestinian actions compared to Israeli actions. Video here: Palestinian Rally Calls Out the BBC.
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