Vigil organised by Doncaster Palestine Solidarity Campaign in response to BBC bias reporting on Gaza genocide
A vigil took place outside the Civic Office yesterday (Wednesday January 22) organised by Doncaster Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Twenty five people attended with just a call out on social media the day before.
The vigil was called in response to what the group called ‘the Metropolitan Police's repressive actions against the demonstration called to highlight the biased reporting of the BBC’.
A spokesman said: “The BBC has refused to call out the genocide in Gaza and insists on broadcasting the media releases of Israel and their backers. This has been thoroughly exposed by Guardian journalist Owen Jones.
“The police prevented us from demonstrating outside the BBC on the grounds that there is a synagogue nearby.
"The synagogue was not on the route of the march, was not holding any services, and there has never been any aggression shown to Jews on our previous 22 marches. The demonstration was led by a coalition of campaigns, and at the front was a Jewish Bloc, plus a Holocaust survivor.”
They continued: “The decision to prevent us marching was taken at government level, urged on by Israeli supporters.
"Legal experts are now calling for an investigation into the policing of the demonstration. There were over 70 arrests including the lead steward Chris Nineham and the Director of the PSC, Ben Jamal. There was no public disorder on the demonstration and we believe the arrests were simply carried out to threaten our right to protest.
“At the vigil last night we heard from a range of speakers who stressed the threat to our democratic rights by the Labour government, and how future, more right wing governments, will take their cue from what is happening today.
"A Palestinian speaker expressed the joy that his family was getting aid, but warned that Israel was attacking villages in the West Bank, imposing a curfew and taking hostages again.
A speaker from the National Education Union highlighted that Trump's inauguration denied a place to the current Labour government but granted places to extremists and fascists.
"We are worried about the threats to democracy that we face as campaigners and trade unionists and we intend to keep protesting and fighting for a better world.”