Emergency Demo For Gaza

Gaza, Gaza, Don't You Cry. We Will Never Let You Die

But can we really not let them die?

What can we do to prevent them from being shelled?
It's not like we have an army to deploy to their rescue.
We have no white knights with shining armors.
We are not the world order.
We do not have the UN under our command.

Gaza is Under Attack

Yesterday, the world sees Gaza being attacked, again.
The last huge massacre was 4 yrs ago in December 2008, for 22 days Gaza was shelled and bombed, children and babies die in their own homes. They were made orphans if not deformed.
That was the time I started being active in the blogging world.

Last night, I saw an event in Facebook, an emergency demonstration for Gaza in Piccadilly Garden!
I see that as a very good opportunity for me to show my solidarity.

The Palestinians will not directly feel the effect of me being there, but being there with abt 100 ppl, will raise some awareness amongst the Mancunian (it's what u call Manchester people).

The press might not be there, but restaurants around have customers. Customers are people. People get nosy. Add that with curiosity and the internet, you get news. Soon enough, really nosy and curious people know more about Palestine and the inhumane attack. The more people know, the better.

Why?

The more money can be collected and channeled for the Palestinian cause.
More volunteers will be produced for the Palestinian cause.
More flotillas, aids, and convoys can be deployed.
More healthy politicians and lawmakers can be trained.
If, more people know.

Anyway, today I got up feeling really motivated.
The exam is next week (see the ticker up there?), today was supposed to be my rest + study-to-the-max day.
But since I want to go to the demo at 5, in Manchester, I need to set off from home at 3pm. I need to finish revising by 2.30pm.

I've called my brother, Wasil to come to the demo as well.
I've been feeling very steadfast the whole, determined to go.
But guess what, once I got onto the bus from home, to go to Preston bus station, I started to waver; I started thinking why am I putting myself in such a difficult situation, spending 2 hours journey to go Manchester, when my exam is in 5 days time?

Why can't I just call Wasil and tell him how much I want to donate, and let him pay on my behalf first?

I kept telling myself, "Ni setan ni...ni setan yang make you feel this way ni...."

After much thoughts and reflections, I came to the conclusion that I am going there because of I:

1. Think I have been very "dormant" and "distracted" for the past year.
2. Want to experience a Gaza demonstration in the UK.
3. In Malaysia, you'd see mostly Malays. I want to see if I'll see only Indian / Pakistani here or can I also see the whites and the black together with the browns and yellows.
4. Regarded myself almost like a journalist, so I am there with a mission and am going to write about it in my blog so that people who can't be here today can read how it was like.

The Demo Itself

I reached Piccadilly Garden at about 5.15pm.
By then, there were about 100 people there, with their Palestine scarves and flags, and banners and hailers.

And it felt lively. A lady was giving a speech in front, I do not know who she was.
She went to Gaza before and she was telling what she saw there, what was happening and all.
And one thing I remember she said, "Remember those (Israelis) nuclear weapons...."

Her speech was then followed by a speech by Dr. Thariq. I really can't hear neither understand much what he was saying, he had a very thick Arabic accent in his English that some times I almost convinced myself that he was speaking Arabic. But he is a Palestinian.
The next speaker was a school teacher. I think he is English.

I think he said he did not pay much attention to the conflicts in Gaza but after seeing horrible pictures of children and babies bombed to pieces, he was outraged.

And I think that was what brought him here. I liked his speech, it sounded so genuine.

He mentioned that he can't bear the thoughts of people bombing and shelling babies and he was also embarrassed by being the citizen of a country, Great Britain who apologised for and supported the atrocities of Israel.

According to him too, Facebook brought down some of the heartbreaking pictures of babies and children being bombed, under the excuse that those pictures are not suitable to be displayed. And I liked what he said about that. He said if Palestinian children are forced to see those deaths, we have to see those images as well. And I second that. Why must we protect our minds from these images?

I went for my Maghrib and Isya after some time in Muslim Youth Foundation (MYF), a place I recently discovered :)



By the time I got back, they left the site they gathered previously and have started parading around Piccadilly Garden.

They were behind RICE Restaurant.
From there on, we walked around Piccadilly Garden cheering for the Palestinians. It's different from the cheers in Malaysia.

There were:

"1, 2, 3, 4 ..... Occupation no more!"
"5, 6, 7, 8 ..... Israel is a terrorist state!"
" .......(smthing smthing I can't catch) .... minions, We are all Palestinians!"

At about 6.45, the parade stopped and the organisers thanked everyone for coming and for their supports. The same gathering will be held tomorrow as well, at about 5pm too. I don't think I can come tomorrow :(
At about 7pm, the crowd started to disperse.



And after that, the 3 of us went for our dinner :)

I think this is the only picture of me tonight.

The Police

Unlike in Malaysia, the police were not there anticipating violence.
I saw only two policemen tonight. In Malaysia, a demonstration like this will require at least 10 policemen.
I think this is something our country needs to learn; facilitate the demo and prevent violence rather than anticipate violence and act at the slightest hint of wildness.


And oh, we can HELP by:

1. Donating
2. Boycotting
3. Spreading the words and create awareness
4. Prayer. I like one of the sentences I found today on FB; "Tembak doa kita". Literally, that meant "Shoot them with our prayer"
5. Study hard, be a useful person in the future.

Goodnight!

-Because life is a test-




-AkMaR-
http://nur-akmar.blogspot.com