Bristol became the latest city to host a #SaveSilwan demo today (July 12) as itinerant organiser Sarah Wilkinson headed a small group on Temple Quay. 

The demo was staged to show solidarity with Palestinians in Silwan, an area of Jerusalem where 1,550 people are being displaced from their homes to make way for Isreali settlements and a theme park. 

Speaking to TBA, organiser and veteran Palestine campaigner Sarah Wilkinson said ‘This is us saying: “we hear you, we hear the fact that you’re sitting there waiting for your homes to be bulldozed, and you’re not alone”.’

A small crowd, mostly composed of Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign members, met outside the offices of Osborne-Clarke at 2 Temple Quay from 5pm on Monday. 

The offices are host to the registered PO box address of Elbit UK, the UK branch of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately-owned arms manufacturer. Elbit has been the target of several recent protests and actions in Bristol. 

Monday’s demo in Bristol follows #SaveSilwan events in Manchester (July 2) and Brighton (July 3). Both of these, and other similar demos, were organised, or part organised, by Sarah, who tours the country sewing seeds of protest.

Of her efforts, Sarah said ‘I think it takes one person to initiate something. And then if one person initiates something in every single towns and every single city, then we’ll have a #SaveSilwan protest en masse around the UK.’

Asked if she intended to return to Bristol with another protest, Sarah promised that ‘If this is successful and if the people of Silwan are still being under siege then yes we’ll keep doing this, we’ll keep coming back and making a noise about it.’