Camden News: Foreign Secretary David Miliband | Primrose Hill | Protest

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Camden News - by SIMON WROE
Published: 15 January 2009

Protesters opposite David Miliband’s house on Friday

Gaza protest brought to Foreign Secretary’s door

THE police carried sub-machine guns, the protesters waved homemade banners. Heavy weaponry and moral outrage came face to face on the Primrose Hill doorstep of Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday in a demonstration against the continuing Israeli-Gaza conflict.
The announcement of a British-drafted ceasefire resolution on Thursday did not stop dozens of pro-Palestinian campaigners setting up camp in front of Mr Miliband’s home in Edis Street.
An equal number of police, several armed and strapped up in flak jackets, watched from the other side of the street.
The protestors, however, were undaunted. Professor Brent, an 83-year-old
Holocaust survivor and
pioneering organ transplant doctor, broke rank to berate the law for their complicity in the events in the Middle East.
“I don’t condone what Hamas is doing but the Israeli action is totally disproportionate,” he said.
Yael Kahn, the Israeli founder of the Islington Friends of Yibna (IFY) who organised the protest, said the ceasefire proposal passed by the Security Council was not enough.
“People think that the problem has been sorted out but the situation is still desperate,” she said.
“This ceasefire allows Israel an opportunity to continue doing as much damage as it wants with impunity.”
She added that the Foreign Secretary had been targeted because of his significant role in negotiating the ceasefire.
Israel began air attacks on Gaza on December 27 in response to rocket attacks by the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
Hamas had asserted it would not renew the ceasefire because of Israeli sanctions imposed on Gaza. Israeli ground troops advanced into Gaza last week.

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