10 November 2023 , 17:04
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A group of protesters have staged a sit-in this afternoon at the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow.
Police are reportedly on the scene and nobody else is being permitted to enter the gallery in Glasgow's West End. Footage shared on Twitter shows a group sitting in the main entrance hall.
The protesters can be heard shouting "ceasefire now", with some holding up placards with the same demands. At one point, museum attendees started shouting at the demonstrators because the rally had cut the daily organ recital short. The group continued to chant "Be free Palestine, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", and "Resistance is justified when the UK supports genocide".
Trade unionists and protesters form a blockade outside weapons manufacturer BAE Systems in Rochester, Kent (PA)In a statement, the group stated: “We stand here today, reading aloud the names of the 7028 murdered in Gaza as a protest against the dehumanisation of the Palestinian people.
“We know that many more have been brutally murdered since this list was released with the death toll now rising beyond 10,000 people.
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“As we bear witness to the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation, collective punishment, and humanitarian crises in Gaza enforced by the state of Israel and supported by Western governments, we urgently call on all Members of the Scottish Parliament to publicly join with the First Minister’s demand of an immediate ceasefire, and to apply pressure to their Westminster peers to do the same.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We are aware of the protest and officers are in attendance." Yesterday, a group of demonstrators scaled the Scottish Parliament building to hang a Palestine flag. Five protesters climbed the awning outside the main entrance. In addition to the flag, they also hanged a Stop Arming Israel banner.
It comes ahead of a major planned pro-Palestine protest tomorrow which is set to see as many as half a million demonstrators take to the streets of London to demand a ceasefire and express public anger over the levelling of Gaza.
The Met Police says it will form a "ring of steel" around the march to prevent demonstrators affecting public remembrance events for Armistice Day. Police chiefs are said to have cancelled leave and extended overtime as well as draft in a further 1,000 officers from across the country for the event on Saturday. Senior officers are said to have been given orders to immediately clamp down on any disorder.
Pro-Palestine protesters in London (Getty Images)The Home Secretary now faces calls to quit after claiming pro-Palestine marchers had links to Hamas, sparking fears it would inspire far-right thugs to attack protestors in London tomorrow. But the demo does not even pass the Cenotaph and is 24 hours before Remembrance Sunday.
Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley sparked the wrath of fuming Tories after he refused to ban the rallies. He said that legally he had "no power" to stop people marching to demonstrate their anger over the situation in Gaza.
However, should the protesters disrupt events memorialising the end of the First World War, the force would spring into action and "protect locations and events of national importance at all costs".
The organisers of the Solidarity for Palestine Campaign have already agreed to avoid Whitehall - where the Cenotaph is located - with them planning to hold the demo over a mile away. More than 70,000 will mob the streets of London on Sunday to protest Israel's decimation of the Gaza Strip, where more than 10,000 people are thought to have been slaughtered in apocalyptic airstrikes, almost half of them children.