CAMPAIGNERS are ensuring the pro-Palestine movement is thriving in the Highlands as they prepare to take to the streets again to call for an end to Israel's war on Gaza.
Campaign groups Highland Palestine and Highland Hearts for Palestine are organising their second march through Inverness, taking place on May 10 following a successful inaugural march in October.
Leanne Maclean, one of the main organisers of next month’s event, said the last march saw around 1000 people “come together as one collective and stand in solidarity” with Palestine.
“We might be smaller than the central belt in numbers, but we certainly pack a mighty punch in terms of how we feel about what’s happening in Palestine,” she said.
“It’s a human issue, we’re talking about the human rights of Palestinians. We have Palestinians and people from the diaspora in our own community, we have a diverse population within the Highlands, and it’s important to acknowledge that and recognise that we all have a part to play.
“We have to make our voices heard loud and clear in the Highlands so that people understand that these aren’t just centralised issues, it’s something that we all carry together.
“It’s important for Palestinians to know that that support and love for them, and that commitment to fight for their liberation and for their rights, is felt across the world, in small communities as well as in large cities.”
Maclean added that people in the Highlands “share deep similarities” with Palestinians, referring specifically to the “clear link” with the Highland Clearances.
She said: “It’s important to make those connections about the empathy we feel, that understanding of what it’s like to experience displacement. We’ve had that in our own history not too long ago, so it’s important to understand that and know that we have so much in common.
“We can recognise that there’s deep similarities in terms of displacement, of occupying land and forcing the movement of people with no right to return to their homes.
“Within the Clearances we had a mass movement of people who were then not allowed to return back home and were also facing extreme situations of violence to move them out of what was their homeland.
“We’re deeply concerned by that, and we know the impacts that has on communities for generations, and people will also have their own generational trauma linked with that.”
The upcoming march in Inverness has been timed to coincide with the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, which falls on May 15 every year. Nakba Day commemorates the 750,000 Palestinians who were forcibly displaced and more than 500 Palestinian cities, towns and villages which were destroyed by Israel in 1948 during the country’s formation.
The demonstration will begin at 1pm on May 10 at the bottom of Stephen’s Brae (IV2 3NA), with the march setting off at 1.30pm. It will end at Bught Park with a rally between 2pm and 3pm.
Maclean encouraged “everyone to come along and join” the demonstration on May 10, adding: “This is nothing about hate, this is only about support for Palestinians.
“It’s about families, friends and colleagues coming together in a safe and inclusive way to take a stand and lend their voices together.”
