Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Swansea today to show their support for the people of Palestine.
Shouts of "free, free Palestine" could be heard as demonstrators marched with banners and signs through the city centre on Sunday afternoon. At least 800 people turned up to show their support, following a protest that took place in Cardiff on Saturday, where hundreds marched for the same cause.
Starting at Swansea's Castle Gardens, the protest headed along Oxford Street and down to the Kingsway before returning to its starting point.
Swansea MP Geraint Davies also spoke at the protest, and later added on Twitter: "Good to speak at the Free Palestine rally in Swansea for the need to end the bloodshed, justice and equal rights, a recognition of Palestine and a two state solution".
Discussing why they were protesting, organiser Nizar Dahan from Swansea, said: "It's against the illegal occupancy of Palestine and the continued settlement building in the Sheikh Jarrah area - where 35 families are being evicted - and the attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque, on people that were praying during Ramadan."
Mr Dahan, 33, stressed this protest had been planned "way before any rockets were launched" and added: "We're protesting against the continued building of illegal settlements on Palestinian land. We all marched against the assault on civilians in Sheikh Jarrah."
Speaking after yesterday's protest in Cardiff, Jeff Hurford from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: "If you look at what's happening there now, 100,000 people have had to leave their homes because Israel might have an invasion. There are refugees and people who cannot return to their homeland scattered throughout the world.
"If you look at the Iraq war protests, it didn't stop the war but it probably stopped us from going into Syria. It's hard to measure the impact but the effect is cumulative. It's probably led the media to become slightly fairer in their reporting of the Palestine conflict. There were countless people coming up to me today saying they were at the 2014 protest, and this was definitely bigger."
