Campaigners gather in Guildhall Square to stage vigil for protestors killed in Gaza

PSDPSC campaigners in Portsmouth Guildhall. picture: Mark Sage

More than 25 members of the Portsmouth and South Downs Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSDPSC) united in Guildhall Square on Tuesday night.

It came as they held a peaceful vigil and protest, standing in solidarity and remembering the lives of more than 100 people who have been killed in demonstrations on the border of Israel and Gaza.

As passers-by in Portsmouth learned, the action was organised to symbolise Palestinian demand to return to Israel, after residents were turfed out of their homes when the latter state was created.

And tragically, it has led to fatal violence between protestors and police – with some demonstrators left badly injured by so-called ‘butterfly bullets’, created to expand upon impact.

Among the PSDPSC contingent was Mark Sage.

Reflecting on the protests he and his peers remembered from afar with the Global March of Return, he said: ‘We need to expose the truth about what is happening in Gaza.

‘Israeli forces have deliberately shot dead protestors who posed no physical threat to any Israeli, as they’re trapped behind a heavily militarised border.

‘Israel’s blockade of Gaza even limits the amount of food the people have access to. Britain must end all arms trade to and from Israel until the blockade is lifted.’