Presbyterian minister tells Belfast rally: 'Inshallah Palestine will be free from the river to the sea!'

The rally in Belfast city centre was just one of a string taking place across Northern Ireland and the wider British Isles over the weekend as the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens.

The Hamas civilian killing spree which sparked the latest round of carnage in the Middle East took place exactly three weeks ago on Saturday.

Rev Shaw was one of several speakers at the Belfast demonstration on Saturday, which appeared to have been attended by thousands of people, with Sinn Fein national chairman Declan Kearney being among the other names to address the crowd.

Rev Shaw is an ordained Presbyterian, but has no ministry and is not employed by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

A video clip, posted online by the Facebook account ‘BDS Belfast’ (which stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions – a long-running campaign to encourage people to shun the state of Israel, economically, culturally, and academically), showed him addressing the crowd for a few minutes clad, like many others, in a traditional Palestinian checked white scarf.

"Palestine exists!” he said. “Palestine exists in our hearts, does it not?

"In our thousands and our millions, we are all Palestinians. But not only does Palestine exist in our hearts.

"Palestine exists from the river to the sea. And one day, God willing, Inshallah, Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.

"We will raise our voices until that becomes a reality. Your presence here today will echo around the world.

"They will hear it in Gaza, they will hear it in the West Bank, they will hear it at Westminster, they will hear it in the Knesset.”

Others at the demo carried home-made placards denouncing Israel as a terror state and attacking Joe Biden, while others had Sinn Fein-made signs, including a young man whose jacket proclaimed: “Queer without fear.”

The phrase “from the river to the sea” has been heard hundreds of times at protests in Northern Ireland and beyond in recent weeks, but is the centre of much controversy.

It is often interpreted as referring to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea – between which lies almost the entire population of Israel.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has written an open letter asking police chiefs to be alert to the chant, and went on to say that it is “a slogan that is widely understood as a demand for the destruction of Israel”, adding that “attempts to pretend otherwise are disingenuous”.

Former NI First Minister Edwin Poots, who has been an outspoken supporter of Israel and formerly backpacked around the Israeli and Palestinian territories, says “that sort of language shouldn't be tolerated”.

One of those who has frequently used the slogan, Gerry Carroll MLA of People Before Profit, has said that the words do not constitute “a racist slogan or chant” and it is “shocking” to suggest otherwise.

Asked to explain his interpretation of the phrase, Rev Shaw told the News Letter yesterday “write what you want just don’t misinterpret my words”, adding that he would go into further detail later.

Rev Shaw’s LinkedIn page says he has been a director or CEO of the 174 Trust for the last 25 years.

The trust describes itself as a “Social Justice Organisation with a distinct Christian ethos”.

It is a charity headquartered in the Duncairn Complex in north Belfast, and in its description to the Charity Commission the trust says it offers “the provision of a safe, shared space centre which provides a haven to the residents of inner north Belfast who have been impacted by issues of multiple deprivations through the many years of the troubles to the present day”.

LinkedIn also says he was a minister from 1989 to 1998, being an assistant minister on Belfast’s Shankill Road, Belfast and then minister to two churches in Portadown area.

Over 1,400 people – largely civilians – are understood to have been killed in Israel during Hamas' incursion on October 7, with at least 212 people taken hostage according to the UN.

It has proven much harder to get reliable figures in Gaza, partly because the health system in the territory is under Hamas control.

Citing those health authorities, the UN said last Tuesday that the death toll had passed 5,000, with 62% of those dead being women and children.

Gazan health authorities issued an update on Friday saying that the Gazan death toll had surpassed 7,300.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated last Tuesday that perhaps 1,000 or so people were missing in Gaza, presumed buried in the rubble of flattened neighbourhoods.

As well as the bombing, Gaza – whose borders are tightly controlled by Israel – is running out of fuel and drinking water.

OCHA has kept a running tally of the number of people killed in Israel/Palestine from 2008 up to just before the most recent violence.

It stood at 6,407 Palestinians (3,803 civilians), and 308 Israelis (177 civilians) – to which all the fatalities above can now be added, pushing the total well into five figures.