Some of you reading this will remember that event last year also triggered several occupations of university campuses in solidarity with the besieged and beleaguered Palestinians, one of which happened in The Law Faculty for almost a week at Cambridge University, which turned out to be an auspicious start to the university's 800th year, and certainly more interesting and lively than many of the officially sanctioned events that took place thereafter, and I daresay a more honest tribute to some of the university's own equally long alternative history of student led insurrections!

Local Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth also briefly turned up to show his support for the cause, along with a cross section of many other local campaigners, including Stop The War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (aka palsoc or psc) amongst others.

One of the speakers included a woman who witnessed first hand the bombs falling on Gaza, and whom saw friends and family killed by them. A fellow campaigner had to finish reading her written account of those events, as she become too overcome to finish reading.

Other points of interest included the numerous police who were lurking about the Market Square for the duration of the vigil.

One of them even had a helmet camera, another more brazenly had a palmcorder, F.I.T. style, although they soon disappeared.

What they expected to see is anyone's geuss, because the whole event was a very civilised, dignified and peaceful occasion, even though a WPC decided they should read out some public order act at the start of the thing (did anyone catch what she was saying?).

Ho hum, whatever.

A two minute silence was observed after the speakers, then everyone gradually dissipated, as by this time (about 1:00pm) it was very cold and very wet.


For more details about the plight of the Palestinians, please see these sites:

 http://www.campalsoc.org/?page_id=2

 http://www.stopwar.org.uk/