Thousands to march in support of Palestine through Cardiff city centre

Martin Shipton

Thousands of demonstrators are expected to march through Cardiff city centre on Saturday October 4 as Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip approaches its third year.

The protest comes as Israel has ordered the entire million strong population of Gaza City to leave.. As the Israel Defense Forces flatten the city, razing block after block, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday that anyone who stayed would be considered “terrorists and terror supporters”.

Supported by a coalition of pro-Palestine, peace, trade union, community and faith groups from across Wales, The Wales March for Palestine will assemble at 2pm on Saturday October 4 outside Cardiff Central Railway Station. Those taking part will demand a UK Government arms embargo, and economic sanctions on Israel, and for humanitarian aid to be let in. Protesters are also calling on the Welsh Government to follow the example of the Scottish Government, which recently endorsed comprehensive boycott, divestment and sanctions to isolate Israel, just as apartheid South Africa was isolated in the 1980s.

Divestment

In recent weeks, the movement in Wales has gained momentum, with councils in Cardiff, Newport, Carmarthenshire and Monmouthshire voting to call for divestment of their pension funds from arms companies complicit in war crimes.

Adam Johannes, a spokesperson for Cardiff Stop the War Coalition, said: “Keir Starmer must listen to his own party members, and public opinion in Britain. This week, a historic vote at the Labour Party conference declared Israel guilty of genocide in Gaza, and demanded a full UK arms embargo and sanctions. This is a stunning rebuke to the Labour government, which has aided Israel’s mass murder.”

On September 16, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory published a 72-page report concluding “on reasonable grounds” that the Israeli government, its senior officials, and the military have committed – and continue to commit – acts of genocide.

Trade unions

The march is backed by several trade unions, including teachers’ unions. Shaz Salim, the National Education Union’s Black Organising Officer for Wales, said: “Teachers are marching because over 20,000 Palestinian children have been killed over the past 23 months. We are taking a stand because this is about the core principle of our profession: that every child, Palestinian or otherwise, deserves the chance to learn, to live, to thrive.”

He added: “Education is under siege. Israel has destroyed schools, universities, libraries and cultural spaces in an attempt to erase a people. To defend Palestinian education is to defend the right of every learner, everywhere, to knowledge and dignity. Schoolchildren in Gaza aren’t just being denied an education; they are being bombed, displaced, orphaned. Their classrooms are reduced to rubble, their futures stolen.”

Those participating in the protest will march from Cardiff Central station to the National Museum in Cathays Park. There will be speeches from Palestinians, trade unionists and community groups.