Bloody Sunday march for Gaza

Thousands of people took part in the annual Bloody Sunday March for Justice, which this year was dedicated to the people of Palestine.

People gathered from across Ireland for the event, which made its way along the traditional route of the original march from the Creggan shops towards Free Derry Corner, where speeches were held.

The commemorative event was led off by people carrying 14 white crosses to remember the 14 people who were murdered by British soldiers in on January 390, 1972 and included relatives of those killed by the Parachute Regiment in the Ballymurphy massacre the same year.

The 14 killed were: Jackie Duddy, Michael Kelly, Hugh Gilmour, William Nash, John Young, Michael McDaid, Kevin McElhinney, James Wray, William McKinney, Gerard McKinney, Gerard Donaghey, Patrick Doherty, Barney McGuigan and John Johnston.

The march was a sea of Palestinian flags as it made its way towards the Bogside. The main speaker at the rally following the march was Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action.

One of the highlights of the weeks’ activities was the repainting of the iconic Free Derry Wall.

A march committee spokesperson said: “The people of Derry understand injustice and suffering only too well. We have long stood in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Free Derry Wall has often been a site of that support. “

Artist Adam ‘SpiceBag’ Doyle, who was was asked to carry out the task, chose to remember and honour Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer who was among those killed by Israel in December, with his prophetic words: “If I must die, let it bring hope”.

Tens of thousands of people also attended rallies in Belfast, Dublin and around Ireland to call for a ceasefire. The protests have taken place since Israel began to liquidate the Gaza Strip and its population in October, but have been energised by a ruling of the International Court of Justice at the Hague that Israel must answer a case in regard to its genocide in Gaza.

In Belfast, the march was led by Jews for Palestine in Ireland, with the key speaker being Jesse Reuben, a United States-based activist who is Jewish. Saturday was Holocaust Memorial Day.

The weekly protest in Dublin, with a march from the Garden of Remembrance to Leinster House, heard shouts of “louder, louder, say it more, no more violence, no more war” and “ceasefire now”.

But there was dismay on Wednesday when a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Dublin government to back the genocide case against Israel was defeated by the coalition parties.

It came despite a march to the Dáil organised by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

“Yet again the Irish government has failed the Palestinian people by voting against a motion to join South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice,” they said.

“They have also failed to represent the majority of us who want an end to apartheid Israel’s Gaza Genocide. Shame.”

Urgent Appeal