Alain English attended a meeting of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK Meeting Gaza: One Year On: End the Siege at Conway Hall Red Lion Square in Holborn London on Tuesday 19th January 2010.

I have attended a number of these meetings before and written poems on the subject of Gaza and the Israeli/Palestine problem, and marched on the Israeli Embassy last year when the attacks took place.

The meeting, run by Hugh Lanning PSC Deputy General Secretary, had the usual run of speakers including MPs George Galloway and Jeremy Corbyn along with rapper Lowkey. There were also speakers from the CND and Viva Palestina!

I have been out-of-the-loop as far as Palestine is concerned. Throughout the whole meeting, there was much of talk of the convoys that had been to Gaza to deliver aid, the outstanding support from Turkey as well as the obstructions faced at the Rafah border from the Egyptian authorities in league with Israel.

First speaker up to talk was Alexei Sayle, who spoke of a hum and a poison throughout the West Bank and then a representative from Viva Palestina spoke vigorously of a successful convoy to take food and medical aid to the people in Gaza and the avoidance of Israeli authorities who been to seen to burn aid in the past. They were also attacked by the Egyptian Riot Police as well as unknown individuals carrying the same weapons. He also said, in a point later picked up by Lowkey, that there was lack of coverage of this in the British media.

Karma Nabulsi of Oxford University (and former member of the PLO) recalled seeing Gaza being attacked and recalled the incredible response of people across this country and drew attention to the government attempting to change the law so that proven war criminals like Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni can effectively seek asylum here without being brought to court.

Allison Shepherd of UNISON spoke of the International Community betraying Gaza in that Israel still maintains control over the state and spoke of the damage done in the attack to the country's infrastructure including it's schools, it's hospitals and it's ambulances. She called for an end to the arms trade with Israel.

Joseph Healey proposed issuing sanctions to Egypt and said the EU must put pressure on Israel as Israel wants to normalize relations between itself and the rest of the world in order to make what it is doing acceptable. She also pointed out that a number of protestors were arrested last year for violent offences and even when they have pleaded they have still been sentenced for unreasonably long periods of up to four or five years. This has been unheard of since the 1980s.

Jeremy Corbyn arrived late into the meeting from Parliament but had come back from Gaza itself late last night after being part of a delegation of MPs from different countries who went there to see the state of Gaza year on from the attacks. He said Gaza was still in a traumatic situation, even though the UN were providing aid. Visiting Gaza first hand was very traumatizing as although Gaza's government still functions there has not been much in the way of reconstruction. He called for economic sanctions against Israel and drew attention to evidence that proved Tzipi Livni ordered the bombing of Palestinian schools - she is guilty of war crimes and human rights abuses. With the luxury of the Israelis and the depravation faced by the Palestinians, it was literally First World living standards next to worse the Third World living standards. It was because of this that the people had to band together and show solidarity with the Palestinians.

A couple of trade union members spoke and made some interesting points. Simon Govan of the TUC made a good comparison between Gaza and South Africa and the CND pointed out that after the first Iraq war Israel ignored worldwide calls for an anti-nuclear Middle East. The PSC also spoke of the dignity of the Palestinian people in the face of Israel's attacks as they received their convoy of aid.

Lowkey took the stage and made a devastating attack on the media for being silent in the past year about the siege on the people of Gaza, as well as their coverage of the war in Afghanistan which romanticizes the soldier while failing to criticise the politicians who sent them there and points out the Afghan 'enemy' are made to look more dangerous than the British who have better resources. In the case of Israel and Palestine, he saidthe broadcast media gave too much attention to detail and not enough to the Palestinians.

George Galloway concluded the meeting and was easily the most powerful speaker. Watching Galloway at work was like seeing Lenin speaking the Communists. He spoke of taking a convoy into Gaza and being eventually deported by Egypt. He said that Egypt should open the gates at Rafah and let the aid through but advised against economic sanctions against Egypt that would only hurt the ordinary man and not the government responsible for their policies.

He warned Israel against attacking Iran or even Lebanon - they will fail. He accused the police of brutality after the protestsm and talked of the Balfour Declaration, which started this whole mess in the first place back after the First World War -as a result the British Government is not a spectator but an active and responsible participant in what is going on.

I will keep in touch with the PSC over the coming months. I think there are some new poems to be written, both on the current situation and the history of the conflict.