Gaza protestors march to world athletics championship venue
- Published
Hundreds of Gaza protestors have marched on the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Hundreds of people marched to the venue for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow to protest against the conflict in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in the east end of the city at Barrowland Park.
The march finished at the Emirates Arena where the championships are being held this weekend.
Scottish athletes Laura Muir and Josh Kerr are among those competing in finals on Saturday.
And middle-distance runner Jemma Reekie qualified fastest for the 800m final on Sunday.
Activists have held demonstrations in cities and towns across Scotland regularly since hostilities began in the Middle East in October.
The Glasgow event was organised by a coalition of groups called the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee.
Wael Shawish said the rallies called for a boycott of Israel at athletic championships
Wael Shawish, from the Scottish Palestine Society, which is an affiliate of the committee, said the march called for a boycott of Israel at global athletic events.
He said: "We want to send a message to the authorities within the athletic federation that Israel, based on what they are doing in Gaza now, should not be allowed to take part in any athletic events until they start respecting international law and Palestinian human rights."
The march follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Downing Street speech on Friday where he said Islamists and the far-right were "two sides of the same extremist coin" who loathed Britain.
Mr Sunak also expressed concern about the regular protests taking place in response to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
But Mr Shawish said: "We have been going every week since 8 October.
"There have been no issues with security or violence or breaking any laws."
Dr Moira Leng spoke out against the plight of healthcare workers in the conflict
Dr Moira Leng also attended the march for the Glasgow Healthcare for Palestine vigil.
She told BBC Scotland: "We meet every single week as healthcare workers to remember our colleagues who have been killed, including four Israeli healthcare workers, and to share their stories.
"The community in Glasgow is seeking to raise awareness of what's happening and the awful, awful oppression and killing.
"My colleagues in Gaza have sent me the most horrific pictures and first-hand stories of people so desperate for food that they're queuing up at 02:30 and they end up dead."
Dr Leng added the marches always left her with a sense of "solidarity and sadness".
She said: "I wanted to be here today to remember and bear witness and say this is not Ok.
"And I know the people of Scotland have come out strongly and said this is not Ok."
The World Indoor Athletics Championships kicked off at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Friday
On Friday Labour lost the Rochdale constituency in Greater Manchester to George Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Britain.
Labour had withdrawn support for their candidate Azhar Ali following remarks widely alleged to be antisemitic.
Mr Galloway has long campaigned on causes related to the Middle East, including for Palestinian rights.
Israel military launched a large-scale air and ground campaign to destroy Hamas - which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and others - after its gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October.
The group also took 253 people back to Gaza as hostages.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 30,000 people, including 21,000 children and women, have been killed in Gaza since then.
Some 7,000 are also missing and at least 70,450 have been injured, according to the ministry.