On 4 July 2026, Dr Issam Hijjawi, Palestinian doctor, freedom fighter and former political prisoner in occupied Palestine and occupied Ireland, spoke outside Leonardo’s offices at Helix City in Newcastle. This was a stop on Britain out of the Middle East march in Newcastle organised by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! And Red Storm Collective. An excerpt of his speech is below.
‘[Israel] tried to bury us for more than 130 years. Thinking that massacres, genocide, torture in prison, public shooting will stop the Palestinian people to fight for their rights: the right of freedom, independence and the right to resist the occupation.
The Zionist Israel is not the enemy of the Palestinian people only. They are the enemy of international peace. When you look [at] what is happening now in the Middle East, Palestine wasn’t enough. [Israel] went to Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran. These are the declared wars of Israel.
From the very beginning of our national struggle, we heartily believe that the Palestinian cause will be, one day, the standard of humanity, the meaning of freedom, the meaning of resistance and its become so!
[Britain] are behind that awful ideology of zionism because [of] their interests, it is embedded within the ideology of zionism as well. Racism in the streets, freedom of speech, people coming out, like Sarah [Soas 2] in London to be put in prison, this is a shared common[ality] between the British political establishment and Zionism. People start to realise that when you are standing with Palestine, you are standing for your own rights: the right for decent jobs, the right for decent pay, because all of that is embedded for and in the cause of Palestine.
I can see the victory coming for Palestine and for the freedom fighters all around the world. If it is not today, it will be tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, but it is coming.’
