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Bike rides and a blockade for Palestine

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Big Ride for Palestine, protest, blockade, drones, civilian deathsProtesters are ‘appalled at the way drones made in the UK have been used against Palestinian civilians’.

Hundreds of cyclists and their supporters blockaded a Midlands factory in protest at its sale of drones used by the Israeli military.

The Big Ride for Palestine staged four feeder rides from London, Bristol, Manchester and Sheffield which converged on Birmingham for a festival in Sparkhill Park.

The ensuing group then moved off en masse to a rally at the factory gates of UAV Engines, in Shenstone, near Lichfield.

UAV is part of the Elbit group and has been the target of repeated protests by activists appalled at the way drones have been used against Palestinian civilians.

The Big Ride for Palestine set out to draw attention to the 547 children verified as killed during the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2014.

Protesters pinned photographs of child victims on the fence surrounding the factory and, during a two hour peaceful action, heard first hand testimony from a Palestinian doctor working with children in Gaza.

“During 50 days of attacks, Israeli forces wreaked massive death and destruction on the Gaza Strip, killing close to 1,500 civilians, more than 500 of whom were children,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme Director, referring to attacks on Gaza which started on 8 July 2014.

Merav Pinchassof, from Jews for Justice for Palestinians, recited a poem dedicated to Tair Kaminer the 19 year-old conscientious objector currently incarcerated in an Israeli military prison for refusing to do compulsory military service in the Israeli armed forces, the IDF.

The event also created a minor internet sensation with tens of thousands of views of a video posted by the Friends of Al Aqsa group and YouTube footage of Tom from Manchester performing his rap composition, ‘There’s Nothing New about the News’.

The Big Ride drew support from MPs, MEPs, trade unions and celebrities, including film director Ken Loach and campaign and charity groups including War on Want and Campaign Against the Arms Trade.

The Big Ride set themselves a target of raising £20,770 to help the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA), which funds projects on the ground in Gaza – clean water, a playground, trees.

Dr Mona El Farra, who lost nine members of her extended family in 2014, told the crowd: “With your support and solidarity, we are helping some of the thousands of children who are traumatised by the loss of the families, their homes, their schools.

“Even though Gaza has been reduced to rubble in places with the support of arms manufacturers like Elbit, who own UAV, we are doing everything we can to rebuild lives.

“The children are all our futures, and they are so brave, but I can’t tell you how damaged they are.

“They have to learn how to play again, to be children.

“This is nothing more than collective punishment of the Palestinian people by the Israel and we say that it is a war crime.”

Activists are now meeting with other grass roots groups to step up their campaign against UAV and the UK government’s support for the arms trade with Israel.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) supporter Kate Byrne took on the 130-mile ride from London to Shenstone and raised a fantastic £345 towards CAAT’s campaigning against arms sales to Israel.

“By trading arms with Israel, the UK is complicit in Israel’s continuing violations of international law and in the horrific human rights abuses experienced everyday by Palestinians,” she said.

“That’s why I raised money for CAAT: to support the work they do working towards ending the horrors of the arms trade.

“The ride was a really fantastic and empowering way to spend the day which drew people from all walks of life. Thanks to all involved.”

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade is a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade.

Committed to nonviolence in all its work, CAAT was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, the Alternative Nobel Prize, in 2012 for innovative and effective campaigning against the global arms trade.

There is still time to get behind the Big Ride by dontaing, or join in challenging arms sales to Israel by adding to Kate Byrne’s sponsorship total.

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