Up to 50,000 people joined a march in support of Palestine on Saturday afternoon, according to organisers. The march was organised by a coalition including CND, trades unions, the Muslim Association of Great Britain and Palestinian Solidarity UK and ran from Hyde Park to a rally in Trafalgar Square.

The peaceful crowd in the afternoon sunshine were addressed by a number of speakers including Muslims, Christians and Jews, all of whom were unequivocal in their condemnation of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the policies of Ariel Sharon’s government.

The actor Colin Redgrave described his recent visit to the al Kasaba theatre company in Ramallah, where during the recent incursion troops had destroyed the entire infrastructure of the theatre, asking “What kind of state allows its soldiers to behave in such a fashion?” Along with the writer and poet Michael Rosen, he called for a “cultural boycott” of Israel until the occupation ended. Rosen added that as a Jew he was publicly renouncing his right of residence in Israel, and called on others to do the same.

The Scottish Labour MP George Galloway went further in calling for a boycott of all Israeli goods, adding “no civilised person should buy Israeli goods, any more than those produced in apartheid South Africa.” He went on to say that US goods should also be boycotted worldwide until the American government ends its support for the occupation.

Galloway described both Blair and Bush as “crazy” in describing Ariel Sharon as “a man of peace”, adding “Mr Blair accused Arafat of letting down his people, and yet by selling weapons to Ariel Sharon he is letting down his own people…These atrocities will not be carried out in our name.” The crowd became stirred as he described his visit to the Jenin refugee camp, the scene of an alleged massacre by Israeli troops, and he said “The dust from Jenin is still on my boots..and is more precious to me than gold dust.”

The journalist Yvonne Ridley, who had travelled with Galloway, told the crowd “make no mistake, this is a war of ethnic cleansing.” Going further in her condemnation of the British Government, she asked the crowd “Where was Blair while all this was happening? He was being groomed in Bush’s poodle parlour in Texas…. His silence during these atrocities will return to haunt him.”

Despite the condemnation of Sharon’s government, speakers of all persuasions were united in separating criticism of the Jewish State from criticism of all Jews. The presence of Michael Rosen and member of Jews for Justice on the podium were part of a move by organisers to stress that the protest was not of an anti-Jewish nature, and a number of speakers were cheered as they condemned the recent vandalism of the Finsbury Park synagogue. Attacks on Israeli civilians by suicide bombers were also condemned by several speakers.

Fears that the event would be hijacked by anti-Israeli extremists also proved unfounded, with members of the extremist group Al Muhajiroun nowhere to be seen despite a recent strongly-worded poster campaign across London.