Protesters rally against arms sales to Israel outside British parliament

By Behlul Cetinkaya

LONDON (AA) - Hundreds of people protested in front of Britain’s parliament on Wednesday against arms sales to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a member of the main opposition Labor Party and former shadow minister for immigration, said in her speech that the health infrastructure and water lines in Gaza were deliberately destroyed by Israel, aid was cut off and millions of people were living in difficult conditions.

"No one can say that the war in Gaza is self-defense," she said, noting that protests for Gaza should continue.

"Keep walking until the governments that support the massacre in Gaza understand you. Far from condemning Israel, our government continues to arm them. They are making our country a collaborator in genocide and war crimes. The government must stop selling arms to Israel and turning us into collaborators of the massacre," she added.

Another Labor Party MP, Dawn Butler, said that as politicians, they have a responsibility to work for peace and justice in parliament.

"You are a peace marcher, not a hate marcher. Everyone here wants a cease-fire. They want the deaths to stop. They want aid to enter Gaza," she said.

In his speech, Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell touched on the violence caused by illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Noting that Israeli soldiers did not intervene in these events, McDonnell said: "When we asked the Parliament what the British government did against these settlers, they said that they imposed sanctions. In this entire process, sanctions were imposed on only two people out of tens of thousands of settlers."

"What happened in the West Bank is a war crime, just like what happened in Gaza. We must stand in solidarity with the West Bank. I want to live long enough to see (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and his Israeli Cabinet tried for war crimes in The Hague."

Meanwhile, a group of Israel supporters organized a counter-protest in Parliament Square.

While police separated the two groups of protesters and employed security measures, one Israel supporter was detained.