Speakers included:
Mustafa Barghouti (Palestinian Minister of Information)
Anglican Bishop Riah Abu El Assal
Professor Manuel Hassassian (Palestinian General Delegate to the UK)
Natan’l Silverman (Combatants for Peace)
Lord Andrew Phillips
Bruce Kent
Richard Burden MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Emily Thornberry MP
George Galloway MP
Caroline Lucas MEP
Dr Daud Abdullah (Muslim Council of Britain)
Ismael Patel (Friends of Al Aqsa)
Dr Azzam Tamimi
Mairead Corrigan Maguire (Nobel Peace Laureate)
Keith Sonnet (UNISON)
And a video message from Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
To the thousands of gathered demonstrators in Trafalgar Square, this afternoon, Mustafa Barghouti spoke of the lengths that Israel will go - not only to murder innocent citizens: storming their houses and shooting them in the head - but in its determination to discredit and undermine any kind of Palestinian state, by hounding and imprisoning democratically elected members of parliament in the occupied territories.
Barghouti also mentioned the despicable and cowardly charges of treason brought against Knesset member, Azmi Bishara, who is now in enforced exile because if found guilty in an Israeli court, he could face execution. Read Jonathan Cook: The Shin Bet and the Persecution of Azmi Bishara.
More on the rally tomorrow...
Meanwhile on the critical situation in Gaza, read Zaki Chehab's piece in the New Statesman, Gaza: The jailed state
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Rally in London calling for end of Israeli occupation of Palestine
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Domenichino, and the lesser orientalist painter, Vernet
Left is Judah and Tamar by Horace Vernet 1789-1863, below is The Persian Sibyl by Domenico Zampieri, 1581-1641 
Today I visited the Wallace collection with Claire. Strangely I had never heard of this London gallery before and it took a girl from Wigan Pier to drag me there. It is an extraordinary place - a national Museum in a grand, historic town house, five minutes from the crushing banality of Oxford street and stupifying Selfridges. On first entering the gates we came upon a bucolic scene (without the sheep): London workers sprawled in the sun, all over the brilliantly green lawn eating their lunch-time sandwiches. We ventured on, wandering inside, into the cool, dark interior that smelt faintly of mince pies, then sharp left through the brilliantly lit gift shop and beyond was a medieval room full of armour. I protested I wasn't interested in armour. Then I looked at it and found it a wondrous and absurd thing. Claire, a Fashion Marketing lecturer, coveted a breastplate, whilst rejecting the chain-mail pants. I considered how likely you were to die horribly in battle anyway. Then we found the great orientalist painting collection and I almost fell in a swoon, forgetting my Edward Said lessons and abandoning myself to the rich exoticism. I think I am obsessed with the eroticism actually and felt a powerful draw to this painting, Judah and Tamar by the 19th century French painter, Horace Vernet. I want to be, simultaneously, Judah and Tamar. As we rushed out so Claire could catch her train, we passed before the great Persian Sibyl and I was mesmerised and abject before her lovely face.