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.