Four pro-Palestine protests planned in Birmingham this weekend

Four demonstrations demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place in Birmingham this weekend.

The first demonstration is planned to take place outside Barclays Bank on the High Street in Birmingham city centre today (Friday, November 17) at 6.30pm in which healthcare workers are calling for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza. They are also mourning members of their profession that have already lost their lives in the conflict.

In line with protests in London the other three demonstrations are taking place on Saturday (November 18) outside the city centre in neighbourhoods, with one planned for Sutton Coldfield, another in Alum Rock and the third in Selly Oak. 

The demonstration in Sutton Coldfield will be a Peace Walk and it is due to take place at 1.30pm, starting at the Town Hall. The protest in Alum Rock is scheduled from 12 noon to 2.30pm, with demonstrators calling it a Ceasefire Peace Rally and meeting at the junction of Highfield Road and Alum Rock Road. The demonstrators are planning to march to Saltley Gate.

The fourth pro-Palestine protest will be outside Labour MP Steve McCabe’s surgery, at Cotteridge Church from 10am to noon. The protesters are urging the Labour Party to support a ceasefire. The local protests are supported by Birmingham Stop the War Coalition.

The protests across Birmingham follow 200 people staging a sit-in at Birmingham New Street on Wednesday (November 17) and calling for a ceasefire. British Transport Police said no train services were affected by the demonstrations. Birmingham Labour MP Jess Phillips resigned from the shadow frontbench ahead of voting in favour of ceasefre, against the party whip on Wednesday.

More than 100 pro-Palestine protests are being planned across the UK this weekend to replace the single large scale marches which have been staged in London.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend vigils, protests, petitions, fundraisers and marches. Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a lead organiser of the protests told the Evening Standard: “This Saturday, ordinary people across the UK will come out again to show the vast majority of them support a ceasefire.

"They will show their solidarity with Palestinians who are suffering unimaginable harm." The protest movement sprung up after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

In air strikes and a ground attack in retaliation Israel has killed more than 11,000 civilians in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, according to Hamas-run health authorities. An estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced.

The latest action comes a week after hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London despite calls for a ban. Eighteen police officers were injured after trouble flared in incidents involving far right protesters and the pro-Palestine supporters.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman had insisted the march should have been stopped because it clashed with Armistice Day events. Mr Jamal added Jamal. “We demand justice for the Palestinian people – their right to self-determination and to live in freedom, safety, and with full human rights."

The national march, organised by PSC alongside Stop the War, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa and others, will resume in London on 25 November, with organisers saying they will continue until there is a ceasefire.