Glasgow venue closes to 'prioritise safety' after protest
The Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow city centre announced it will be shut after a crowd attempted to stage a takeover on Tuesday.
On social media, the spot announced: "In light of recent events and ongoing conversations involving the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), we've made the decision to keep the building closed to the public for the remainder of this week.
"This is not a decision we take lightly, but we recognise the need to pause. The temporary closure will allow us to prioritise the safety and well-being of our staff and partners, and to create space for reflection.
"We understand the strength of feeling being expressed by our community, and we remain committed to engaging with this moment thoughtfully.
"We will be sharing further updates in the coming days. Thank you for your support, and for your patience."
Glasgow venue closes to 'prioritise safety' after protest (Image: Newsquest)
READ NEXT: LIVE: Huge police presence in city centre as activists stage takeover
Palestine protestors took over CCA in Glasgow city centre
(Image: Newsquest) We reported at the time that a group of activists staged a sit-in.
The action prompted a huge police response, with three police buses, four vans, and a patrol car deployed to the scene.
Officers were observed both inside the CCA building and stationed outside on the street.
According to the group, the demonstration was sparked by the CCA board's refusal to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy or to endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
An Israeli strike kills 18 Palestinians in central Gaza as turmoil mounts over food distribution
An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday where witnesses said a crowd of people was getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit that had confiscated the goods from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed. The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza's population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month. After blocking all food for 2 1/2 months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May. Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys. The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday appeared to target members of Sahm, a security unit tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of Gaza's Hamas-led Interior Ministry, but includes members of other factions. A horrific scene Witnesses said the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd when the strike hit. Video of the aftermath showed bodies, several torn, of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings. The dead included a child and at least seven Sahmt members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza's police, considering them a branch of Hamas. An association of Gaza's influential clans and tribes said Wednesday they have started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting. The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening. It was unclear, however, if the association had coordinated with the U.N. or Israeli authorities. The World Food Program did not immediately respond to requests for comment by The Associated Press. 'We will no longer allow thieves to steal from the convoys for the merchants and force us to buy them for high prices,' Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi, a figure involved in the tribal effort, told the AP. Accusations from Israel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in a joint statement Wednesday accused Hamas of stealing aid that is entering northern Gaza, and called on the Israeli military to plan to prevent it. The National Gathering slammed the statement, saying the accusation of theft was aimed at justifying the Israeli military's 'aggressive practices.' It said aid was 'fully secured' by the tribes, which it said were committed to delivering the supplies to the population. The move by tribes to protect aid convoys brings yet another player in an aid situation that has become fragmented, confused and violent, even as Gaza's more than 2 million Palestinians struggle to feed their families. Throughout the more than 20-month-old war, the U.N. led the massive aid operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicine and other goods to Palestinians even amid the fighting. U.N. and other aid groups say that when significant amounts of supplies are allowed into Gaza, looting and theft dwindles. Israel, however, seeks to replace the U.N.-led system, saying Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies from it, a claim the U.N. and other aid groups deny. Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has started distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza for the past month. Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds. Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots. A trickle of aid Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for U.N. distribution. The World Health Organization said on Thursday it had been able to deliver its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, with nine trucks bringing blood, plasma and other supplies to Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza. In Gaza City, large crowds gathered Thursday at an aid distribution point to receive bags of flour from the convoy that arrived the previous evening, according to photos taken by a cameraman collaborating with the AP. Hiba Khalil, a mother of seven, said she can't afford looted aid that is sold in markets for astronomical prices and was relieved to get flour for the first time in months. 'We've waited for months without having flour or eating much and our children would always cry,' she said. Another woman, Umm Alaa Mekdad, said she hoped more convoys would make it through after struggling to deal with looters. 'The gangs used to take our shares and the shares of our children who slept hungry and thirsty," she said. Separately, Israeli strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least 28 people across the Gaza Strip, according to the territory's Health Ministry. More than 20 dead arrived at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, while the bodies of eight others were taken to Nasser Hospital in the south.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
I spent four years in Iran's Evin Prison, but strength has come from it
The retired civil engineer, now 71, had been visiting his mum in the north of Tehran when he was suddenly arrested and imprisoned having been falsely accused of spying for Israel's Mossad Intelligence agency, despite having lived in the UK for 20 years. He spent nearly five years in the jail in foul conditions, facing long hours of interrogation and threats, which eventually drove him to attempt to take his own life three times. But through his own and his family's perseverance and determination, he has lived to tell the tale. In March 2022, Ashoori was released from Evin Prison alongside fellow British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. READ MORE: Glasgow arts centre temporarily closes after pro-Palestine protest Their release followed months of intensive diplomatic negotiations between London and Tehran and the repaying of a debt owed by the UK to Iran. The UK paid £393.8m owed to Iran after it cancelled an order for British-made Chieftain tanks following the overthrow of the Shah in the revolution of 1979. Now dad-of-two Ashoori will be sharing his incredible story with the people of Scotland at an exhibition accounting his experiences in Perth, run by the local Amnesty International group. Ashoori told The National he wanted to convey some crucial messages in the account of his ordeal and remind people that what happened to him could have happened to anyone. 'If we as the British public are indifferent to the things that are happening around us, it will come and knock at our door,' he said. 'So we should be vigilant. I was an ordinary person, I was living my own life, and I was involved with engineering, my main hobby was astronomy, nothing to do with politics and I fell into this trap. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. 'My other message is that there are two golden rules for victory; golden rule number one is always remember that perseverance pays off, as it did for me. Golden rule number two is never forget golden rule number one. (Image: Amnesty International) 'It was because of perseverance by my family that I am now here. Otherwise I would be among my friends who are now being transferred from Evin prison after that attack to a far worse prison in south of Tehran. Their life has turned from hell, to triple hell." Evin Prison came under attack by Israel earlier this week amid strikes elsewhere in Tehran. The exhibition at St John's Kirk in Perth – devised by Ashoori himself with the support of Amnesty International – will recreate the emotional and physical reality of his detention and will feature personal items Ashoori was able to smuggle out of Tehran's notorious Evin prison after his release. It will feature a reconstruction of his arrest, the crowded conditions in cockroach- and bedbug-infested communal cells, and how the inspiration of hoping to run the London marathon after his release helped Ashoori cope with his time in jail. It is miraculous he is now able to share this story of resolve and courage when a few years before, he had been in solitary confinement, with a floodlight beaming down onto his head 24 hours a day and malfunctioning air conditioning. 'All that it could blow was hot air,' he said. READ MORE: Patrick Harvie and Angus Robertson face-off over Israel divestment 'The food was foul, and I could hear very clearly the sound of crying and whimpering of my neighbouring cells. So, there was sleep deprivation, long hours of interrogation trying to force me to make confessions. 'Then came the threats. They had my laptop, and they printed pictures of my family members. They used to come and say, 'look this is your son smiling, next time you're going to have a picture of his corpse'. 'When you are going through that day after day, you reach a threshold. Eventually, because of those pressures and lack of sleep, you tend to believe what they say. 'I reached a point where I reasoned with myself that the only way to protect my family members from harm was not to be. That led to three suicide attempts. Luckily, I survived.' Amid the torture and despair Ashoori was going through, there was glimpses of hope he held onto, through running while in prison and the poetry society he created with other inmates. One of his fellow prisoners opened his eyes to a collection of poems called Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, which he reflects on regularly in the healthy, happy life he now leads – which has included him living out his dream of running the London Marathon no less than four times. 'After being released, the Anoosheh Ashoori that was so indifferent to all these things became quite active. So many good things emerged, one of them was the London Marathon, of course,' he said. 'The Flowers of Evil collection of poems [taught us] even from the darkest places, goodness can emerge. Strength can emerge. That is what happened.' The Surviving Evin exhibition is running from Friday, June 27 to Sunday, July 6, at St John's Kirk, Perth.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Moment pro-Iran and Palestine protester says Zionists 'should f****** die' in extraordinary outburst at Brighton demo
A pro-Iran and pro-Palestine activist has called for all Zionists to 'f***ing die' in a shocking video takn during a demonstration in Brighton. The activist, seen wearing an X-Files T-shirt, was seen inside Brighton train station describing Israel 's invasion of Gaza as the 'third Holocaust.' 'We don't deserve that, the people of Palestine don't deserve that', the as-yet-unidentified activist said. When asked by a man offscreen about what should happen to Zionists, they answered: 'Zionists should f***ing die, in my opinion.' When pressed on whether they believed all Zionists should die, they said: 'Yes.' The shocking video comes days after violence erupted on the streets of London during a protest supporting Palestinians as police arrested a suspect for throwing a bottle at pro-Israeli counter-protesters and a man was filmed apparently performing a Nazi salute. Activists calling for urgent aid to be sent to Gaza and for Israel to stop bombing Iran yelled 'shame on you' at the pro-Israeli counter-demo. Thousands of demonstrators were heading to Whitehall from Russell Square in central London and waved Palestinian flags and chanted 'free, free Palestine,' 'occupation no more, 'Israel is a terrorist state,' and 'stop bombing Iran'. Campaigners gathered in large numbers under the banner of the Palestine Coalition. But things took an ugly turn as they passed a group of counter-protesters assembled near Waterloo Bridge by the pro-Israeli group Stop the Hate. The Met Police said it chased a suspect through the crowd down the Strand after a bottle was thrown at counter-protesters and apprehended them. A spokesperson said: 'A short time ago a bottle was thrown at the Stop the Hate protest. Fortunately it fell short and nobody was injured. 'Officers chased the suspect down the Strand and made an arrest. The suspect has been taken into custody.' Later footage also emerged seeming to show a protester performing a Nazi salute. Stop the Hate posted on social media and said: 'Nazi salute or a wave? The Met Police think it was a friendly wave at today's hate march.' The Met responded online and said a man had since been arrested: 'We will review the initial response to this incident, however we can confirm that after becoming aware of this footage a search of the area was carried out and a man has been arrested.' The march, which began around midday in Russell Square, moved through Aldwych and the Strand before concluding with a rally and speeches in Whitehall, including from pop star Paloma Faith.
