By Roya Shahidi, Co-Editor-in-Chief
The protest, which was organised by the Socialist Worker Student Society, took place at 1 p.m. today outside Senate House.
Students joined together in solidarity with Palestinians affected by the escalation of the Israel–Hamas conflict.
Various speeches were given, calling for an end to the violence and for the British government to aid the Palestinian people.
One student read a poem which condemned Benjamin Netanyahu's policies towards the Palestinian people.
There were numerous chants throughout the protest of 'free Palestine' and 'in our thousands and in our millions, we are all Palestinians'.
Speaking to Epigram, Charlie Gadd from the Socialist Worker Student Society commented:
'Israeli forces have bombed a hospital where thousands were seeking refuge. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and injured.
'This is on top of cutting off essential resources to Gaza and the threat of a ground invasion. This makes it even more important to be out on campus opposing Israel's vicious war crimes and ethnic cleansing.'
A Palestinian student, who wished to remain anonymous, commented:
'In order to help the Palestinian cause and end the occupation, there are three main things that we must do: show up in numbers to protests, join the BDS movement, and email MPs and tell them about what's going on and how they can stop it.'
She continued: 'This is not a political issue. This is an occupation that needs to end.'
Another student at the protest, who also wished to remain anonymous, added:
'There is no grey area to killing innocent children and women. Please check your resources — they can be untrue as they are very biased.'
The protest was peaceful and lasted around 45 minutes.
Featured image / Roya Shahidi
Editor's note: As of the time of writing the article, the origin of the attack on the Gaza hospital has not been verified by official sources.
Bristol University offers support to anyone affected by international conflicts: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2023/october/israel-and-gaza-message.html
You can also contact the wellbeing teams by:
- telephone: +44 (0)117 456 9860 (open 24 hours a day)
- email: wellbeing-access@bristol.ac.uk
- completing the request wellbeing support form.
