On Saturday August 5th, 2006, the Hezbollah standard was raised unchallanged over Parliament Square, London. This alarming event occurred during a rally in the center of the capital calling for “Ceasefire Now!” and “Stop The War”. The show, of course, was really nothing more than a demonstration against Israel and The West. Thus the ceasefire demands seem to have been rather limited; nowhere in the pictures could I find a single banner that called for an end to suicide bombings against weddings, funerals and other “soft” civilian targets in either Israel or Jordan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Unfortunately I could not get to the demonstration to see for myself. Below are some images from other photo-bloggers who did. One is critical, one sympathetic to the protestors’ cause.
Because of the significance of these happenings, these images demand as wide an audience as possible yet it is unlikely that the main stream media will give them proper coverage. Link to the sources to view their full accounts.
The Hezbollah standard raised unchallanged over Parliament Square:
The crowd is marshalled by Hezbollah:
George Galloway and Anas Altikriti among those at the front of the procession:
The crowd occupied Parliament Square and the surrounding streets. Despite there being a ban on demonstrations this near to the parliament buildings, which has been vigourously enforced in the past, on this occasion it appears for the most part the police did not intervene.
Police temporarily block Whitehall (The Cenotaph is centre of picture):
But the worst is yet to come – police did not prevent The Cenotaph, the nation’s memorial to the British dead of two world wars, from being defiled. Perhaps they don’t understand the meaning of the shoes for Islamic culture?
Cenotaph defiled:
