Israel-Gaza attacks: Hundreds attend Manchester city centre vigil for Israel. Elsewhere not so supportive.

October 11, 2023

A lot happening this evening. This is the good news. Sadly I progress to less heartening

Hundreds of people have attended a vigil in Manchester city centre after the Hamas attacks in Israel. Militants entered communities near the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing hundreds of people at a music festival and taking dozens of hostages.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and city council leader Bev Craig were among those speaking at the event.

Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell said: “We stand together against terror as one community.” Raphi Bloom, of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region, said it was a chance to “come together” and show solidarity.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Manchester,

Posters celebrating the massive Hamas assault on Israeli civilians are plastered across the campus of Manchester University. The posters call for “victory for the Palestinians” and announce a meeting to explain why “it’s right to resist Israel

I just got off the phone with a very frightened Manchester University student. These posters have been put all over her university. The Jewish Society kids are too scared to even go to a vigil for the fallen dead. This meeting will celebrate heinous violence

The Quakers who run the venue had the violence pointed out to them and it is not being held there. I don’t know if it has been reorganised.

In Yorkshire

Protesters have removed Israeli flags flying above two South Yorkshire town Footage shared on social media showed a man on the roof of Sheffield Town Hall on Tuesday, removing the banner and replacing it with a Palestinian flag..

Officers attempted to disperse crowds, with two suspects “fleeing the scene” during the “minor disorder”. No arrests had been made, a force spokesperson added.

The force confirmed it had also received reports of the theft of a flag and “minor damage” to a flagpole at Rotherham Town Hall and investigations into both incidents were “ongoing”.

Police say they are treating the incident as a racially aggravated public order offence and are in contact with the CPS

South Yorkshire’s mayor Oliver Coppard condemned the acts, saying they did not “reflect the values of the region”

In Bradford a pro Palestinian demonstration is taking place outside the City Hall tonight. My source took these from a bus as it passed by.

…

I am currently on holiday in Scotland. The Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf or his wife, or their daughter are on TV every night lamenting their poor relatives “trapped” in Gaza. This prison state is, (or was) so awful that Scottish citizens like Mrs can jaunt back and forth visiting family without let or hindrance.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), which is made up of four MSPs and the presiding officer Alison Johnstone, refused a Conservative request for the Israel flag to be flown outside parliament.