Bombs “more horrific than Hiroshima” have been dropped on Gaza, a peer said as she insisted protest marches will continue until the “slaughter stops”.
Baroness Uddin said she hopes the marches will “yield peace and justice”, adding the cause of Palestine has been “awakened in the hearts of all citizens throughout the nations”.
She added the UK Government is “so complicit with Israel’s breaking of international laws and breaching the international norms of war”.
The PM should rest assured that no marches shall stop until that slaughter stops
Baroness Uddin
The non-affiliated peer’s remarks came as the House of Lords held its International Women’s Day debate.
The ongoing war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s deadly raid into Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and saw militants seize about 250 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes have left more than 30,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people.
Lady Uddin spoke of the importance of protest in Bangladesh, where she was born, before highlighting that she has marched many times for various causes, including demanding an end to the Iraq war and for better NHS services, during her more than 50 years as a Londoner.
She went on to raise the first UK women’s liberation march in 1971 and said this has evolved into a movement of one million women.
Lady Uddin told the chamber: “This coming Saturday, this global movement of one million women will rise and coalesce alongside hundreds of thousands of men and women of every background, creed, colour and faith, or none.
“They will stand in solidarity for all oppressed, occupied and violated women of our world, and in opposition to the killing of women and children in their thousands.
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“They will call for an immediate halt to the killing fields of Palestine, where 30,000 women, children and their families have been murdered, tens of thousands buried under tonnes of rubble, bombs more horrific than Hiroshima, 70,000 more have been injured, maimed or burned with phosphorus, starving children, women without water, basic food or medicine.
“For which we must hold the perpetrators to account. Until such time, together with many hundreds of thousands, I shall march in peace and solidarity, giving voice to those who cannot.
“In honour of the Palestinian mothers, daughters and granddaughters who have been slaughtered, I will walk in the tradition of my country, this country, and shout out to demand that our Government must stop its support for the Israeli occupying force and its brutal warfare on the Palestinian people.”
In a message to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Lady Uddin said: “The PM should rest assured that no marches shall stop until that slaughter stops.”
She added: “I hope that these marches will continue to oppose the actions of our Government, who are so complicit with Israel’s breaking of international laws and breaching the international norms of war.
“The PM standing and declaring war on protesters may provide temporary cover over his conscience. Allying them with extremist behaviour will do nothing to dissuade me, my neighbours, my children or my grandchildren from marching in the tradition of the Suffragettes, and for all those who march today for freedom and justice, as they have done for hundreds of years.
“Yes, to call for freedom and justice across all the rivers, of all the seas, of all the continents, until all women in all nations are free and triumph over occupation, oppression, wars and genocide.”
Equalities minister Baroness Barran said she would “absolutely refute” the description given by Lady Uddin on the UK Government’s position on Gaza.
She said: “The priority must be an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out and then progress to a sustainable and permanent ceasefire, and the Government’s been quite clear about that.”
