by an ISM London volunteer
On Monday 3rd August 2009, from 5pm a large group of protesters put up tents and banners next to and across the road from the Israeli embassy in central London to protest the evictions of 53 Palestinians in Sheik Jarrah, Jerusalem on Sunday.
Protesters aimed to call attention to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Occupied East Jerusalem.
Police initially tried to move the protest but the protesters refused to move. Eventually the inspector in charge of Kensington and Chelsea police force arrived and agreed the protesters had every right to protest.
The protesters erected tents in solidarity with the nine families who were thrown on to the streets by the occupying Israeli forces to make way for extremist Jewish settlers. The protesters were angry and upset at Israel’s blatant disregard of international law and world opinion in removing the families including 19 children from the ancient Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah near to the old city of Jerusalem — a fundamental part of any future Palestinian state.
The protesters have said they will continue pushing the British government and the European Union to follow up their words of condemnation with action that punishes Israel for the ethnic cleansing that it is perpetrating in Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
In light of its serious breaches of international law and of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel’s actions seriously call into question the favourable EU-Israel trade agreement, the supply of over 150 arms contracts by the British government to Israel and the full diplomatic relations Britain and the EU have with Israel.