POLICE yesterday stopped the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz)’s plans to deliver a petition to the United Nations office in Harare to show solidarity with Palestinian workers in the wake of the current Israeli military attacks on Gaza.
Officer commanding Harare district Chief Superintendent Raudzi Chuma wrote: “You notified me that your solidarity march shall commence at Ashbrittle shops up to the United Nations offices in Zimbabwe, which are located at Block 10, Arundel Office Park, Norfolk Road, Mt Pleasant, Harare, where you shall hand over your petition.
“However, your notification letter falls short of the requirements as outlined in the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act [Chapter 11:23]. Therefore, your intended solidarity march and petitioned has not been sanctioned.”
The teachers union wrote a letter to the police on October 17 notifying them of their intention to hold a solidarity march in accordance with clauses 6 and 7 of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act.
They said the teachers were demanding an end to the unjustified attacks on Gaza by the Israeli armed forces.
“These attacks have caused untold suffering to the people of Palestine, including the workers whom we stand with in solidarity,” the Artuz letter partly read.
Artuz intended to march today to the United Nations offices in Mt Pleasant, Harare, to deliver the petition.
Israel is bombarding Gaza after Palestinian militant Mohammed Deif earlier this month launched Operation Al Aqsa Flood to retaliate Israeli raids at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque in 2021.
The Gaza Strip is a narrow piece of land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Israel to the east and north, and Egypt to the southwest.
With a population of two million on some 365 square kilometres, Gaza has a comparably high population density.
Hamas rockets killed 1 200 people in Israel and wounded more than 2 700.
Israel has since declared war on Palestine, likening the Hamas attack to American’s September 11, 2001 tragedy when suicide bombers hijacked civilian planes and rammed them into landmark buildings in the United States.
