Symbolic funeral march held in Portsmouth in solidarity for those in Gaza

The News, Portsmouth

A symbolic funeral march has been held in Portsmouth to highlight the plight of those who have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:08 Hi, we're with Palestine Solidarity Committee.

00:13 We're a group of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, children.

00:19 We're marching for funeral babies for Gaza because so many have been killed.

00:27 There's been 15,000 babies and children killed in Gaza over the last five months.

00:34 Over 35,000 people and it's not right and we can't forget them.

00:39 We want to mourn them and we want the wider community to understand that this isn't right

00:46 and that they must have their voices heard.

00:48 [Music]

01:03 Hello, my name's Rosie. I was on the funeral procession today for people killed in Gaza.

01:10 I wasn't expecting so many people to attend,

01:14 but I was really pleased that lots and lots of people came out on a Sunday afternoon

01:20 to honour and to mourn the people killed in Gaza.

01:24 It was important to me to hear the names and ages of the thousands and thousands of people

01:31 killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombs and when they queue for food and they get shot.

01:38 These are people that we're not meant to identify with. We're not meant to care what happens to them.

01:44 Of course we care about people in Israel as well, Israeli citizens,

01:48 but the Israeli state is pursuing a very, very, very terrifying and cruel policy against people in Palestine.

01:57 And the fact that so many people came out to demonstrate and to remember people in Portsmouth today,

02:05 I think shows that people do care about what's happening in Palestine

02:11 and we very much want the genocide to stop.

02:14 [Music]

02:21 These are all the names of two-year-old children in Palestine that were killed.

02:26 [Music]

02:30 Amir Kanan, two years old. Amir Saeed Safra, two years old.

02:36 Anas Faiz, two years old. Anas Hussein Al-Khateeb, two years old.

02:43 [Music]

02:57 Today we marched in black for the 12,000 plus children killed in Gaza.

03:05 Some carried shrouded babies to symbolise the disproportionate number of babies and children killed.

03:12 Some of us read the names and ages of just 400 of them.

03:19 This level of child casualties is not an accident.

03:25 It's a war crime. There's no other name for it.

03:30 The reason their names was very painful, because as you say, a name like Abdelkarim Abdullah Omar Shabab

03:40 and his age, under a year old, you can't help but imagine his cruel and tragic end.

03:51 All of the names that were read out were of children that did not make it to primary school.

03:58 [Music]

04:09 It was a very moving experience to be part of.

04:13 We knew about 50% of the participants and another 50% were kind of new people.

04:23 I think we needed it as a community to deal with the sadness that we were engaged with.

04:38 And I think it had a strong impact on Portsmouth.

04:44 I noted that a lot of people came to their balcony windows and to their balconies and looked down on us.

04:54 To begin with in wonderment and later on with genuine sorrow and sympathy.

05:01 [Music]

05:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended