Over 100 Pro-Palestine demonstrators took to the streets of Haverfordwest today (Saturday) where they staged a ‘mock funeral’ before targeting a Pembrokeshire MP’s office, declaring “Crabb drinks Champagne while cheering on Israeli genocide!”
After staging the mock funeral on Castle Square representing 24,448 dead Palestinians who have been killed in Israel’s War on Gaza in the last 100 days, protestors then marched on Tory MP Stephen Crabb’s office where the dead bodies were once again laid on the street and outside his door.
Protester Ayesha Hussain stated: “It’s awful that we’ve had to come out again today because our MP Stephen Crabb has still refused to call for a ceasefire and stop the killing of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
“It’s disgraceful that this is still allowed to happen. We won’t be going away. We will remain steadfast until Palestine is free and until Stephen Crabb grows a backbone and calls for a ceasefire!”
One of the organisers Jim Scott of Stop the War Pembrokeshire said: “What kind of world are we living in where we have to make mock up dead bodies like this for a demonstration?!
“It is just beyond unfathomable what the people of Gaza are going through right now.
“Stephen Crabb and Simon Hart MP have blood on their hands. Crabb isn’t just complicit in the killings in Gaza, he Called for this in Parliament in October before it even happened!
“He’s the Chair of the Conservative Friends of Israel and is part of their propaganda machine dehumanising innocent babies, children, women and men. This is genocide, nothing less and Crabb will be judged by history for this.”
The Campaign group Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire has also begun delivering weekly open letters to Mr Crabb.
This week’s letter focussed on the Genocide case in the Hague against Israels’s war crimes asking Stephen Crabb: “Will you support the ICJ ruling?” [if the international court decides that Israel is committing a Genocide in Gaza.]
Campaigners announced today that next week’s open letter to Mr Crabb will be an invitation to meet with them and to discuss and justify his current position on the killings taking place in Palestine.
Key National Trade Unionists gave speeches at the rally including Cerith Griffiths of the Fire Brigades Union Cymru and Mairéad Canavan a National Executive member of the NEU (National Education Union) who said: “I am supporting the demonstration because this is a human catastrophe caused by the deliberate action of the Government of Israel and is clearly a war crime and an act of genocide.
“The UK government has failed to call for a permanent ceasefire and continues to give unconditional support to Israel.
“As a teacher I'm particularly horrified by the cost of the genocide to children. Since 7 October 2023 , at least 23,469 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 59,604 Palestinians were reportedly injured. Some 70 percent of the fatalities are women and children.”
Since October 7, local demonstrations have repeatedly marched on Stephen Crabb’s constituency office as well as targeting Marks & Spencer and Barclays bank over their support for Israel’s war and occupation in Palestine, weekly vigils have also been held.
Organisers of the protest stated: “Biden, Netanyahu, Sunak, Starmer and our own MP’s - Stephen Crabb & Simon Hart are complicit in this war crime.
“We are rallying to send a clear message from Pembrokeshire to Crabb and Hart that this genocide must stop.
“We are rising up for Palestine and we are certainly not going away as Crabb has been claiming.”
Today’s demonstration took place as part of coordinated local rallies around the UK following hundreds of such demonstrations since the War on Gaza began.
National demonstrations have attracted one million people on the streets of London and organisers encourage everyone to join local and national rallies in support of Palestine and to demand an end to Israel’s genocide on Gaza.