Thousands attend 18th Palestine Festival in London

Nearly three thousand people attended the eighteenth Palestine Festival organised by the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) in London yesterday. This year’s event featured prominent Irish politician and president of the Stop the War campaign in Ireland, Richard Boyd. In a rousing speech, he pointed out the historical origins and similarities between the Irish and Palestinian struggles for independence.  Boyd affirmed the support of the Irish solidarity movement to work for the defeat of settler colonialism and apartheid in Palestine.

Other foreign participants included the Kuwaiti singer Hammoud Al-Khidr, Kifah Zreiki from Palestine and the Palestinian-American rap artist of Waheeb Naasan. They were joined by the British rap artist Lowkey.

Festival’s director, Adnan Hmidan, told reporters that the festival will raise the slogan “Palestine is in my heart” for this year, emphasising the connection with Palestine, regardless of the geographical distance.

In his opening address, PFB chairman Zaher Birawi confirmed that the festival carried a special message for the British government, its outgoing prime minister and her successor; “that we are part of the British society, but we are also Palestinians who dream of liberating our homeland and of the return to our cities and villages in Palestine.” He added, “It is our right to work to achieve our national dreams and goals. We will not accept attempts to silence us and prevent us from exposing the crimes and racist practices of the occupation; and we will never accept this British alignment with the policies of the occupying state at the expense of our rights, freedom and our homeland.” Birawi stressed, “No matter how many crimes the occupation increases, it will not prevent us from demanding our rights and supporting our people and our homeland.”

This year’s festival presented awards of recognition to the former head of the National Union of Students (NUS) Shaima Dallali for her outstanding support of the Palestinian cause and its community in the United Kingdom; other recipients of awards were: prominent human rights solicitor advocate and president of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), Tayab Ali, director of Middle East Monitor (MEMO) Daud Abdullah, Professor Kamel Hawwash, Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Irish MP Richard Boyd.

During the event, the audience stood for a minute of silence for the souls of the martyrs of Palestine. They were entertained by Palestinian traditional Dabkeh dances by the MEK group from Kafr Qassem and Jaffa, as well as performances by children of the Yasmine Al-Sham band, which is made up of Palestinian, Egyptian, and Syrian children in Britain.