Naming the Children

Some words shared by John Usher, photos also taken by John Usher.

Last Saturday 30.11.2024, Southport Friends of Palestine held one of their fortnightly high-profile demonstrations on busy Lord Street, in support of the civilian population of Gaza, for over a year the victims of deliberate indiscriminate mass-murder by Israel, with the participation of Western Governments, including, to our shame, the British Labour Party Government.

One aspect of British media coverage of events in Gaza, that I find utterly disgusting and revolting, is the way that Palestinian civilian lives are treated as less important, they are nameless, faceless, non-persons, just numbers and hardly human, ‘human animals’ as Israelis call them.

'The deaths of four Israeli soldiers were reported recently on our TV, dressed in their smart uniforms all with smiling faces, their full names were given and their ages, they were all very young. No mention of what the Israeli military is doing in Gaza, as part of Israel’s campaign to erase everyone living there, ’No-one in Gaza is innocent, not even babies’ claims Israel.'

Contrast this with the reporting of Palestinian deaths - perhaps '96 Palestinians were killed in Gaza last night’. End of story. No mention of who murdered them, as if it was some random act of God. Every one of those 96 had names given to them at birth by loving parents, they were all adored by their parents or children, by their brothers and sisters, loved by their school friends, the little girls loved to dance, the little boys loved to play football, the older young people were studying to be doctors or nurses. All of these heart-breaking stories are brushed aside by our rotten media and by our rotten politicians.

At the Southport demonstration on Saturday, campaigners all read out the names and ages of many killed in Gaza. They were all lovely and precious men women and children each loved by God. We will not allow the hate-filled racists in Israel or the West to write them out of history.

I would like to share with you some pictures from Saturday.