By Sally Hobbs

This weekend, cyclists in cities across the UK took to their bikes to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s occupation.

The event was in partnership with Amos Trust who have organised “Run the Wall” annually to coincide with the Palestinian marathon in Bethlehem. The Big Ride for Palestine has been cycling to protest every two weeks since the massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Bethlehem marathon in previous years has highlighted the illegal Separation Wall which daily impacts ordinary life for thousands of Palestinians who cannot travel to work, school, or carry out simple tasks without hitting checkpoints, facing harassment, threats and the routine humiliation and denigration that it involves.

This year, there is no marathon in Bethlehem. The scale of the terror facing Palestinians in Gaza alongside the even more openly aggressive ethnic cleansing of land in the West Bank is unprecedented.

As the world watches, over 1.5 million Gazan people have been herded into the South by Israeli forces. They are enduring the removal and blockading of all human necessities from clean water, to food, medicines and housing, while continued bombing has now wiped out all 36 hospitals in Gaza and all infrastructure. Since the attacks by Hamas on October 7^th the Israeli state machinery has visited collective punishment on the whole of Gaza.

In the West Bank, the scale of demolitions of Palestinian homes by settlers supported by militia, theft of land and massive escalation of checkpoints and arrests has gone largely unreported in Western media. Over 7,000 more Palestinians have been arrested at checkpoints in the past three months and at least ten are known to have died in Israeli detention.

I went on my first Big Ride nearly 10 years ago, in response to the obvious and continued need to bring Palestinian rights to the world’s attention and to raise funds for the work of Palestinians trying to support their communities in the face of such massive inequality and illegal occupation.

At that time, Palestinians had begun their longstanding campaign for the right to return to live in their homeland. In 2014, UN official figures numbered over 2,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces including many children (compared to six Israelis).

 That Big Ride in 2015 had only a few of us providing the organisation for a four-day long ride from Edinburgh to London, ensuring that there was a presence in towns where we stopped with rallies in each and a final rally outside Parliament.

In subsequent years, Big Riders have organised three-day events across cities annually, with rallies addressed by local Labour MPs and other leading supporters.  In Manchester, Gerald Kaufman MP and later Afzal Khan MP have spoken at local rallies alongside Dr Mona El-Farra from  the Middle East Children’s Alliance.  

The Big Ride has over these years built strong ties to two particular organisations in Gaza: Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and Gaza Sunbirds, founded by para-cyclists who lost limbs in Israeli sniper attacks during the Right to Return campaign. Snipers firing at unarmed Gaza protestors across the border into Gaza in 2018 are known to have boasted their achievement of ‘42 kneecaps in one day’.  Having qualified for the Paralympics, their acceptance for training in Belgium, Switzerland and Spain consecutively has been prevented by a refusal to issue visas.

Gaza Sunbirds right now are using their bikes to distribute food and other aid across Rafah and to other desperate and besieged people in Gaza.  The Big Ride has raised approximately £400,000 over the years for MECA’s work, led by Gaza based, Dr Mona El-Farra its Chief Executive. Their work has included projects such as community food kitchens, adventure playgrounds, girls’ sport clubs, annual outings to the sea, training local communities and providing professional trauma-based support for children – essential for the thousands of children already traumatised by killings, bombings and daily threats even before current events.

Dr Mona herself has longstanding links with UK Labour supporters and has been a human rights activist and community activist all her life. She is a former Vice president of Red Crescent, raising her family in Gaza and using her practice as a medic to build hospitals, support health education,  and particularly to support women and children.

Dr Mona was living in Gaza city till the Israeli response to October 7^th when the full-scale bombing of the city took place. Her own apartment was occupied as a sniper facility by Israeli forces and has since been entirely razed to the ground.  She has finally been able to leave Gaza as a UK passport holder.

She and her family are tirelessly continuing to organise support within Gaza and our rides this weekend and in the coming months will support this. MECA continues to organise kitchens in Gaza. One recently destroyed by Israeli forces is in the process of being rebuilt) to provide food, emotional and social support to the thousands who have lost everything.

The flagrant and cowardly refusal of the Labour leadership to back a complete ceasefire has already lost the party support across many swathes of society – not just Muslim communities – and across the world.  The scandalous abdication of any commitment to human rights, to put the global interests of the rich and powerful ahead of socialist principles has long term repercussions for Labour and the UK which we as socialists have a responsibility to oppose.

As a Manchester-based activist, I have been close to the recent appalling situation in Rochdale which left working people without any socialist representation. Despite being left with no credible choice for voters, there was none of the much-reported growth in far right votes from one of the most deprived areas in the region. In such a vacuum, George Galloway’s win was a predictable and entirely understandable vote for Palestine and against the right-wing narrative and anti-Muslim racism that is the currency of the Labour leadership, alongside the government and mainstream media.

But we as socialists urgently need to continue to build and organise a genuine left bloc which people can support. Palestinian supporters in Manchester have formed an alliance across those who were local PSC members, together with  young activists and Palestinian youth organisers. An effective Labour Party Palestinian support bloc across the region needs to be a visible and vocal force.

 Riding the Wall with Big Riders, runners and walkers across this country and in at least 37 other countries  this weekend is just one of many actions to continue to protest and demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people. Socialists and anti-imperialists across the world do notice who is opposing genocide.

Sally Hobbs is a Labour Party member and human rights activist Manchester.

Please see newsletter for ways to support the work of Gaza Sunbirds, MECA, and future actions. 

https://mailchi.mp/thebigride4palestine/march-newsletter-end-the-genocide?e=27e7ae2073

If you are a member of the Labour Party in Greater Manchester and want to get involved with the Labour Party Palestinian support bloc there, please get in touch via the Labour Hub website.