TODAY, millions of us are marching in London, across the country and indeed all over the world. We are demonstrating in solidarity with the people of Gaza who have suffered the loss of 23,000 people, the destruction of more than three-quarters of all housing, 80 per cent of all schools and the damage and destruction of almost all hospitals. 

Sadly, more people are now dying from wholly preventable conditions brought about the lack of medicines, a lack of anaesthetic, a lack of even the very basic amenities to clean wounds, as well as chronic diarrhoea brought about by poor sanitation. Only a few kilometres away are plenty of supplies for everyone, yet the people of Gaza are denied it.

We’re marching because we want the people of Palestine to be able to feed themselves, educate themselves, care for each other and above all to be able to live in peace free from bombardment. And we support those in the West Bank who are suffering horrific levels of suffering and destruction of their homes and villages. It is a telling point that the Israeli bombing campaign has specifically targeted archaeological sites of historic significant to Gaza.

This week, I was at the International Court of Justic to support the South African application for relief, under the Genocide Convention, from the bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces. 

South Africa prepared and presented an absolutely brilliant argument. Its lawyers pointed out that the Genocide Convention was to protect all people, and that the Israeli action met the requirements of the convention in its deliberate and specific acts against the totality of the Palestinian people in Gaza. 

As South Africa also noted, this was reflected by statements made from Israeli politicians indicating that Gaza’s population should be reduced to a few thousand people.

The search for justice for the Palestinian people is growing, and this application was supported by some academic and legal figures in Israel, including 300 who have publicly attached their names to the document, as well as the statements from several human rights groups.

The world was watching this week, and hoping that the ICJ would stand up to its name and grant this interim relief, which would be a demand for Israel to stop the bombardment.

The background to this is the supply of aircraft, weapons, surveillance equipment to Israel from the US but also European countries including Britain. Our march today is to stop the supply of arms in order to save life. 

Today’s march is a global call — and it’s not the only one. We’ll be making many more. Anyone who is on a demonstration today is making their contribution for peace. And they are hoping to change the debate in favour of human rights and justice for the Palestinian people.

Two days ago, the US and Britain started their joint bombardment of Yemen, in response to the Houthis’ attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. It seems strange that the emphasis of Britain and the US is on the protection of commercial interests in the Red Sea rather than saving human life in Gaza. The British government claims to be specifically directed at the protection of civilian life. We’ve heard that before. In reality, it is doing nothing to address the wider issues.

The issue that we are faced with is: unless there is a ceasefire now in Gaza, then the war will spread wider and wider. It’s already affected the Red Sea. It’s already started in Lebanon to the north. And it’s already ramped up the rhetoric against Iran. Israel is of course continuing its illegal occupation of the Golan Heights.

The UN and the world’s leaders will now see the catastrophe looming in front of us. The question is: will they admit it? Today here in London, and across the world, we are raising our voices for peace and for justice. And we are calling for the humanitarian instincts we all have to take precedence over the power of the arms lobby.

During the time it’s taken me to write this article, more Palestinian children will have died, more innocent people walking along the road in Gaza will have died, and more people will be suffering excruciating pain as doctors do their best to save them from terrible conditions without anaesthetic. Over the past 90 days, human beings in Gaza have been killed at a rate of 250 people a day. 

This matters to all of us, as do all wars in the world. Let’s resolve ourselves to be a global movement for peace in the world. Thank you for everything you are doing to campaign for the Palestinian people.

Jeremy Corbyn is MP for Islington North, and founder of the Peace & Justice Project (thecorbynproject.com).