A 26 year old woman opened the demo I went on today in Sheffield calling for a ceasefire in Palestine. This young woman was born in Dar al-Shifa hospital in Gaza which was bombed recently. The name of the hospital means “House of healing”. It was built in 1946, before the Nakba in 1948, when the Palestinians were first made to flee their homes by the Israeli government. The hospital predates all of this. It is the biggest hospital in Gaza, whose only purpose is to heal.

As the young woman pointed out, what a shame that our own government in the UK has chosen to say that people would find protests against war “disrespectful” on Remembrance Day. Perhaps members of our cabinet fell asleep in their RE lessons at school? Well, let me enlighten them. This is the purpose of Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day is specifically about remembering the carnage and horror of war and redoubling our efforts to make sure we prevent and stop war in our time, rather than initiating it or allowing it to proliferate. This was Learning Outcome Number One in the lessons every year about Remembrance Day.

When I used to teach RE, the kids got it. They didn’t find it particularly tricky to understand, even though most of their lives had been mercifully free from direct experience of war.

One of the most moving speeches I heard today on the demo was from a young man in his twenties, recounting his experiences of being in Gaza until a few days ago, with his family. Witnessing first hand the carnage, and even having the unbearable experience of seeing some of his own family blown up. I guess some of the young people in our schools now do have direct experience of war. Thanks partly to the inaction of our own government.

There is a growing movement of Jewish people across the world saying, “Not in my name” and crying out for ceasefire in Palestine too. Imagine the fear they faced in coming to a demo like this. But they were there and they were welcomed warmly. Shame on our government, unable to face into its petty fears and speak out to save the thousands of children and innocent civilians dying in this horrendous war.

What a great opportunity it would have been, on Remembrance Day of all days, for our government to call for a ceasefire in Palestine. What a brilliant embodiment of all that Remembrance Day was supposed to remind us of. And yet so far not even the leader of the opposition has called for a ceasefire. Shame on us. Shame on us.