The Sheffield pro-Palestine Campaign rallied outside Sheffield Town Hall before presenting the council with a petition with over 7,500 signatures calling them to action.
Sheffield Socialist party member Alistair Tice said: “We’re all here encouraging Sheffield City Council to make an unequivocal statement in support of Palestine against the Israeli terror.”
Peter Jones, one of the founding members of the Sheffield Palestine coalition, spoke to the crowd on behalf of the Labour Friends of Palestine expressing his pride to be part of the group, but criticised the current Labour Party.
Jones said: “The Labour Party under Starmer’s leadership is the main instrument, the main agent for anti-Palestinian propaganda, ideology and pro-Israel propaganda and and repression in this country.
“We’ve got to reconsider all of our connections and associations with the Labour Party and I hope that the councillors inside are hearing this: we cannot support an organization that supports genocide.”
The group formed 18 months ago and have fundraised and campaigned for Palestinian aid through numerous events across Sheffield.
Green Party Councillor Alexi Dimond, who in November drove for Sheffield to be the first council in the country to vote for a ceasefire spoke to those rallying.
He said: “One in 75 Gazans are dead, there are 2 million people internally displaced, half of all homes have been destroyed, hospitals have been attacked and destroyed with only 12 of 35 now barely functioning at all.
“I know that some people will find this hard to hear but the evidence is overwhelming; this is genocide.”
Dimond hoped the Green party would propose a notion to accept the petition being presented, however inside the meeting the council did not vote on the petition and referred it to the Strategy and Resources Committee that next meets in June.
Dimond said: “Despite the resolution that this council passed in November it has not taken any action in support of Palestinians, in stark contrast to our pronouncements of solidarity with Ukraine. In my opinion this is clear evidence of anti Palestinian racism.”