Palestine supporters have gathered in protest of the Israeli flag above the Sheffield City Council building, in a bid to raise awareness of ‘concerning and sickening’ Palestinian suffering.
The protest started at the Train Station and continued upwards to the city centre with people shouting, ‘Free Palestine’.
Once they arrived at the council building, protesters called for council leader, Tom Hunt, to “take it down”.
Nabil Suruor, a Palestinian national said: “We are here to stand in solidarity with our brothers and people back home, we need to tell the world what is going on, a big genocidal massacre is about to happen in Gaza, on the West Bank and in Israel.
“The language that is coming out of the fascist, right-winged government of Israel is concerning and sickening. There is no one who has peace or human rights in their dictionary, it is a foreign word to them.
“All they speak about is kicking the Palestinians out, and killing as many Palestinians as they can. That needs to be stopped, it is not sustainable, it is not right and it’s as simple as that.
“People are living in fear. It is a simple conflict, and people need to stand up as it is really.”
The protest was also sparked by outrage over a lack of balanced commentary in the news about the conflict.
Cilia Maiver, a retired writer and activist, said: We have to raise more public awareness, it’s shocking the way it is reported in the news, there is not so much that is reported on the Palestinian side of things. I am really beside myself about how our press seems to be in favour of Israel.
“We have to remember that there are many progressive Jews, they are not all Israelites. I recently went with my choir to sing in solidarity, for two weeks we went around different parts of the West Bank, but we also went around Israel.
“We went to a human rights organisation, which not only had Palestinians, but it is Jews as well, this is not anti-Semitism, I have friends who are Jews in the protest today and the people need to sort that out in their heads.”
Joe Biden has condemned Hamas’ ‘acts of sheer evil’ and said the US would provide military assistance and help to restore Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’.
Callie M, who works at the University of Sheffield, said: “I think that the British media’s portrayal of this war is completely one-sided, there is obviously a whole torrent of lies. This is a terrible situation, that should never be cheered upon, but it is completely one-sided in not contextualising the war.”