Hundreds gathered outside the Town Hall

• CAMDEN Friends of Palestine and the Camden Branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a peaceful demonstration outside Camden town hall on Monday night, calling for ceasefire in Gaza, (Mayor locks up public gallery as Gaza demo surrounds Town Hall, March 9).

We sought the permission of Camden Council to present a formal deputation to their meeting on Monday, but they refused our request.

Two of our delegation were Islington Labour councillors who were threatened with suspension if they did not withdraw.

Confusingly Islington Council voted early on for ceasefire.

Three hundred people held 40 metres of continuous banner, stretching from the town hall main entrance in Judd Street, round the corner into Euston Road.

Our intention was not to impede the councillors on entering the building, but to demonstrate our disappointment that Camden, while able to make statements of support for Ukraine in the past, is unwilling to do the same for Gaza.

The public gallery was closed at the last minute.

One half of the banner, 20 metres long, depicted gravestones on which were copied the names of children killed in Gaza, by age.

Since October Israeli attacks have killed at least 10,000 children, that is one child killed every 15 minutes, or about one of every 100 children in the Gaza Strip.

Contrary to prime minister Rishi Sunak’s view that demonstrations such as this have no new points to make, our views could only be expressed in this way, outside the town hall.

Emails to local councillors have not been replied to, and visits to local surgeries have been prevented by last-minute changes of venue.

One councillor stopped the meeting by leaving the room when Ukraine was mentioned.

Could it be because Camden have £34million invested in companies identified by the United Nations as complicit in the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestine?

Divestment is one of the demands that we would have made if our delegation had been allowed.

Could it also be because Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party and local MP, is unhappy if Camden has an independent voice, one that counters his current view that Israel has a right to self-defence? At the cost of over 30,000 lives, and mass starvation.

GILL JACOBS
Camden Friends of Palestine
Member of Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign
& Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association