Hundreds marched through Oxford city centre in a demonstration organised by Oxford Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) on 16 December. The protest marked the tenth Saturday of national action since the Israel-Gaza War began and continued into a rally on Broad Street with speakers including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, 13-year-old Palestinian Bana Al-Asadi, trade union leaders, and other activists.
Chairman of Oxford PSC, David Hillman, described the mood as “angry, sad, but determinant” to Cherwell. He explained that the persistence of the PSC was because “the genocide goes on” and that even though “it gets more and more evil, our message stays the same”, referring to their calls for an immediate ceasefire.
When asked about the Oxford chapter in the broader national scene, he told Cherwell: “Oxford plays a key role in the fact that our greatest philosophers and moralists have come out against this genocide, so have Oxford University students and the ordinary people… We have doctors at John Radcliffe [Hospital] who have visited Gaza, educating people on medicine over many years, and every week there is a very moving rally by medical students in Oxford.”
Demonstrators came to the march with various signs, with one display drawing a lot of attention from the crowd: Strapped to a protester’s mobility vehicle was a life-sized mannequin dressed in white with bandages around her head wound and a scarlet scarf. The same protester also carried a sign with the same motif and two wrapped baby dolls named Adam and Basil after the two Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers while playing in Jenin.
After an hour-long walk down Cowley Road and High Street, the marchers gathered by the Sheldonian Theatre for a rally.
Corbyn, a long-standing advocate for Palestine and a member of the PSC, spoke at the rally with an emphasis on the UK’s role in this conflict. On the failed United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire, he said: “Britain, to its shame, abstained.… This sort of supine, cynical approach that members of parliament took on this fills me with utter disgust.”
However, more members of parliament voted for a ceasefire than he had expected, which Corbyn attributed to the large number of people demonstrating and writing to their MPs.
Corbyn then criticised the role of the arms industry in the conflict: “Wars don’t come from nowhere. They come from a great deal of money, a very powerful arms industry that supplies the weapons, and the military involvement of other countries.”
Oxford University’s connections to the arms industry was highlighted in the “Act Against Genocide” petition circulated in October which stated that “Oxford is in the top 5 universities in the UK to accept arms funding (2013-2021) from companies found by Amnesty International to fail to ‘demonstrate adequate human rights due diligence’”. The petition has previously inspired student protests as well as the chant “Oxford Uni you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”
When asked about Oxford’s role in the conflict, Corbyn told Cherwell that his message for the university is “think of what you do and think of why it’s done.”
Al-Asadi, a 13-year-old Palestinian, also spoke to the crowd: “The UNICEF organisation says that the Gaza Strip has become the most dangerous place in the world for children’s lives… The children of Palestine, like other children in the world, have their own dreams, feelings, and aspirations for the future. Now, I say enough of this transgression and humiliation.
“If there is any remaining shred of humanity, and any sense of responsibility among these officials and decision-makers, [they should] raise their voices loudly and without shame to stop this barbaric and deliberate killing of children and vulnerable civilians.”
