Peace campaigners in Orkney will be meeting today, Saturday 26 April, between 1 and 2pm on the Kirk Green, Kirkwall, to continue in their calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The vigils in Orkney are sustained activism never seen in the islands before.
The campaigners have met every Saturday since October 2023, with a pause during the very brief ceasefire. They have also held a successful exhibition celebrating Palestinian art and culture. Some of them took part in the ‘Stitch in Solidarity’ banner making and using old medical scrubs as a base for their embroidery. The Orcadians had received the banner from Shetland where it had been worked on having previously been in Aberdeen.
On Thursday 24 April the Phoenix Cinema in Kirkwall held two showings of the Oscar winning film ‘No Other Land’, which documents the violent suppression and theft of Palestinian land in the Israeli illegally held West Bank.
The Orkney News has reported every one of the vigils and many of them have been filmed by Mike Robertson where they can be viewed for free on YouTube. Mike also livestreamed and filmed two events held by the Orkney Friends of Palestine and Amnesty Orkney: Life in a Bedouin Village in Israel; and The Current Situation in Gaza.
In August 70 people attended a cooking demonstration and sampled the food made by Diline Abushaban, an author and storyteller who moved to Scotland from Gaza around 16 years ago.
As the weather improved Nadia and Edwin Heath invited people to share in the joys of their beautiful garden. Edwin has laid a special part aside as a memorial to the children of Gaza.
The vigils in Orkney welcome anyone who share in the hopes for peace in Gaza, the unhindered delivery of aid, and the return of all hostages. Many visitors join the locals in the vigils.
The latest situation report from UNRWA states that:
“Humanitarian aid and supplies have not entered the Gaza Strip for over 50 days now (since 2 March 2025), when the Israeli authorities imposed a siege. As a result, critical humanitarian supplies, including food, fuel medical aid and vaccines for children, are rapidly depleting; UNRWA flour supplies have run out and only 250 food parcels remain.”
Orkney islanders for many years have donated to two funds:
Hope and Play which is dedicated to helping add hope and play to the lives of Palestinian children who are denied these most basic rights. They build spaces to play, offering learning opportunities and providing trauma support to children and operate in the villages and refugee camps under occupation in the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and in Lebanon.
Shufat refugee camp fundraising to practically support the many children there with learning and physical disabilities.
Fiona Grahame