SHORTLY after the ceasefire was declared in January, London mayor Sadiq Khan was among a chorus of voices across the political Establishment suggesting that now was the moment for the mammoth protests in support of Palestinian rights to come to an end.

The intervention came at a moment when the state’s repression of the solidarity movement which had already seen the unprecedented use of counter-terrorism laws being used against protesters taking direct action against arms factories, was being ramped up to target the national marches leading to the banning of a march to the BBC on January 18 and the charging of leaders of the movement for breaches of the Public Order Act.

We knew why we were continuing to protest. We knew that the ceasefire was unlikely to hold, given Israel’s history of breaching such agreements. We knew that even if it did hold, the genocide would continue with the deaths of many, many more Palestinians from the trauma already suffered and the lack of access to treatment services.

Above all, we knew these two truths we have been proclaiming from every public platform since Israel began its genocidal assault in October 2023: that the genocide is built upon the foundations of 76 years of oppression of the Palestinian people through the mechanisms of occupation, apartheid and colonisation; that this system of oppression cannot be sustained without the active complicity of bodies in the British government, public authorities and companies and corporations.

Two months later and these facts are clear. Since the ceasefire was announced Israel has violated many of its terms including the delivery of aid. It has killed over 150 Palestinians in Gaza. It is now unilaterally revoking the agreement and issuing new terms demanding that all hostages are released now and threatening to “unleash hell” if this demand is not met.

Indeed in a speech to the Knesset on March 3 Netanyahu effectively told the people of Gaza they would be killed if the hostages were not released and even if they were, Israel would still launch a further military assault which would kill many of them.

This week Israel has cut off electricity, aid and drinking water supplies. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, it has used this moment to ramp up its policies of ethnic cleansing forcing 40,000 Palestinians out of their homes, accelerating home demolitions and land theft and killing over 100 Palestinians since the beginning of the year. British complicity in this oppression is unending.

Keir Starmer has still not uttered a word of condemnation of Trump’s plan, endorsed by Israel, to ethnically cleanse two million people from Gaza and rebuild the territory as a Palestinian-free playground for the rich.

This week, at PMQs challenged directly by Zarah Sultana on the cutting off of aid, the best he could muster was that this “risked violating international law,” akin to stating that battering someone to death with a hammer might risk the crime of murder.

We have entered an Orwellian universe where the appeasement of a US president violating every precept of rights, justice and international law is good politics, and protesting genocide is a threat to public order.

A universe where a government will arm a state on trial for genocide, support increasing police repression of protests against these crimes and cultural institutions like the BBC and the Royal Television Society act to silence those resisting genocide.

The political commentator and analyst Daniel Levy pointed out in a submission to the UN that if we held a minute’s silence for every Palestinian child killed in the genocide, the silence would extend over 300 hours.

The political establishment wants to sustain a world where those who make up these horrific numbers are never humanised, and pro-Israel groups demanding the silencing of their voices must be appeased so that documentaries telling of their lived experiences are removed from public platforms and awards given to journalists for their reporting of the truth, even at the cost of being killed, must be rescinded.

So the time for marching has not passed nor has the time for ramping up campaigns of boycott and divestment. Palestine Solidarity Campaign with its network of nearly 100 branches continues to take these campaigns to every town and city. To date, nine councils have now passed motions supporting divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s oppression.

On March 12 we launched a nationwide Don’t Buy Apartheid campaign calling on all individuals, shops and businesses to boycott Israeli produce and Coca-Cola, complicit because it operates facilities in an illegal Israeli settlement.

Today we will be marching again in London taking these demands to the streets of the capital. Omar al Akkad told us all “one day everyone will have always been against this.” Those protesting now are not waiting to find themselves on the right side of history.

Ben Jamal is the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign — Palestinecampaign.org.