7/10 Human Chain project:“United We Bring Them Home” march

June 2, 2024

To LIncolns Inn Fields for the 7/10 Human Chain project:“United We Bring Them Home” march from Lincolns Inn Fields (a lovely little park behind the Royal Courts of Justice in the heart of the legal district) to Whitehall. Although security was so tight many of us didn’t know that until we got there.

Below are some photographs of the muster.

And on the back of his shirt, under his steward’s. jerkin are the names of all those murdered at the Nova festival

This next one hit home; the Manchester Arena murders angered me even more than the London Transport bombings, possibly because of the connection my daughter and her friends had to that venue. I was offered one to carry in the march. Lacking a third hand while taking photographs I had to decline.

The muster area had been divided into blocks and these formed up to lead off round Lincolns Inn Field and down Remnant Street.

The man in the pink shirt isn’t identical quads, just an effect of my panorama setting if I don’t glide smoothly..

Into Kingsway.

.Round Aldwych and into the Strand where I caught up with the front of the march. As well as chants of ‘Bring Them Home’ and ‘Bring them Home Now!’ there was music. Some Israeli and Hebrew songs and others from British pop catalogue. Wuthering heights by Kate Bush – ‘It’s me, it’s Cathy, I’ve come home’; the old spiritual Go Down Moses. let my People Go, by Louis Armstrong; I’m Still Standing by Elton John – ‘Don’t you know I’m still standin’ better than I ever did, Lookin’ like a true survivor …’ And obviously Hurricane by Eden Golan.

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Leading the march was the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis KBE

Man’s Best Friend also played a part. We were asked to wear something yellow, and as well as yellow scarves and ribbons some people, or dogs wore the number 240 to signify the number of days in captivity.

.Past Trafalgar Square which was set up as the Fan’s Zone for the football fans still in London after last night’s big match. Borussia Dortmund play in yellow kit and their south terrace is called The Yellow Wall. Several supporters in yellow shirts looked most bemused as thousands of marchers dressed in yellow filed past, shouting and dancing.

I overheard a policewoman behind me speaking to another officer; ‘I think they are getting a little over excited now, but I suppose this is a big thing for them’, which is a bit of a cheek as the exhuberant and good humoured dancing and singing was hardly the hate-filled threat of violence that we see most weekends from the pro-Palestine mob. I can’t be certain as she was behind me, but shortly afterwards I think she had moved forward and I believe that I was ear-wigging Gold Commander.

Hostages and murder are serious stuff, but if you don’t laugh you cry. So you laugh, and then you cry.

The area outside the Ministry of Defence opposite Downing Street was set aside for speeches.

There was live music from a small band

.Welcome on behalf of 7/10 Human Chain and the Hostage and Missing Families Forum

The estimate of todays attendance is 30-40,000. We had to wait for the end of the march to catch up with us at Whitehall. However many people didn’t stay for the speeches. .

I didn’t take a note of every speaker. Notable were the parents of IDF soldier Oz Daniel who was believed to be a hostage but who was killed on 7th October.

One speaker criticised the BBC for their coverage of the war generally, and in particular their refusal to name Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The BBC report of today is here and that of the Daily Mail here

The Chief Rabbi read from the Psalms, the one I know as Psalm 121 if I’m not mistaken, each verse in English and Hebrew and concluding with prayer. I’m envious; as a Holy man he’s got a lot more go about him than the weedy specimen I have for an Archbishop.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

I don’t know who the band were, but they did a blinding version of the Eurovision song Hurricane. It was the Hurricane version, not the original October Rain.

Security was good. Charming gentlemen, but I wouldn’t want to mess with them

The next speaker was the cousin of IDF soldier Ron Benjamin whose body was recovered recently. He spoke movingly of his late kinsman. I could hear shouting from Parliament Square and went to investigate. But the ‘terrorist state’ in question was Russia being berated by a rally of Ukrainians. As I was so near the station and my feet were killing me I came home.

I think Madam Gold Commander is unused to dealing with civilised decent people. First the British march yesterday (and some people I spoke to today had been to both, which impressed me) and now Jews and friends today. It’s been a good weekend.