Haringey councillor joins protest march to Gaza

Mary Mason is due to start a 30-mile trek from Egypt to Palestine today in protest at Israel’s blockade and war on the Gaza strip, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

The Rafah Crossing (credit gloucester2gaza via Wikimedia Commons) and (inset) Mary Mason

A Haringey councillor is taking part in a march to Gaza to protest Israel’s blockade and war.

Independent Socialist group councillor Mary Mason is joining around 3,000 pro-Palestine activists taking part in the walk, organised by independent movement Global March To Gaza.

Cllr Mason said Israel’s interception of Gaza activists’ aid boat earlier this week was a key reason she joined the march.

The campaigners assembled in Cairo yesterday (Thursday 12th) and are planning to start the trek today (Friday 13th), taking approximately three-and-a-half days to complete a 30-mile march through searing heat.

The walk will start in El Arich, Egypt, cross the Sinai Desert and end in Rafah, on the Egyptian/Palestinian border, which is controlled by the Israeli military.

Speaking today to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Mason confirmed she had arrived in Egypt but had not set out on the walk and that dozens of the activists are potentially facing detention and deportation.

She said: “I’m still in Cairo, there’s lots of police questioning delegates. No-one has been detained yet but there’s no permission to walk yet.”

Earlier explaining her reasons for joining the march, Cllr Mason said: “After the interception on Monday [9th June] in international waters of the freedom flotilla yacht Madleen by the Israeli navy and the whereabouts of the vessel and crew currently unknown [crew members have since been detained and deported] the Global March takes on a heightened significance.

“Israel acts with impunity, breaching international law, be it in Gaza, the occupied territories or on the high seas, and must be held to account.”

Representatives from over 30 countries are taking part in the walk with Cllr Mason being one of 250 marchers from Britain.

Cllr Mason also highlighted a “shameful” Haringey Council meeting back in March as a further incentive, when the Labour-run council kicked her and fellow Independent Socialist councillor Lotte Collett out of the meeting while Cllr Collett was giving a deputation on divestment.

Cllr Mason said: “Participation in the march is representative of mass global and local opinion, much more representative than Haringey Council and its Labour members.

“The Labour group sabotaged our [the Independent Socialist group] motion calling for the council to divest its pension fund to be withdrawn from corporations complicit in the genocide of Palestinans.”

Defending what happened back in March, a council spokesperson said: “Council procedures were followed both before and during the full council meeting.

“The wording of the motion was agreed by the monitoring officer in the usual way. If individuals decide to move away from the agreed subject matter, the mayor has the power to intervene and ask them to stop.

“The council’s standing orders are clear that motions must only debate issues for which the council has a responsibility, or affecting the wellbeing of the borough, not international matters beyond the council’s control.”

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