Demonstrators outside the Town Hall on Monday night

PROTESTERS campaigning for a ceasefire in Gaza forced the temporary shutdown of this week’s full council meeting.

A crowd had met on the steps of the Town Hall in Judd Street, King’s Cross, on Monday night to call on councillors to table a motion backing a ceasefire in the Middle East.

Mayor Councillor Nazma Rahman adjourned the meeting for 15 minutes after several protesters disrupted the opening proceedings with demands from the public gallery.

One woman called out: “One in five people in Camden are Muslim. As a Palestinian woman, I speak to you and specifically to you, Mayor, and I want to express that I am deeply disappointed and devastated that you have not called for a ceasefire to stop the slaughter of my people.

“What is stopping you from taking a stand against the genocide of my people? All that we ask is that you speak for the people, and call for a ceasefire, and end the slaughter of my people.”

The New Journal last week reported that Camden’s only Green politician, Cllr Lorna Russell, had proposed a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, she could not find another councillor to second her proposal, meaning it was not debated at the Town Hall on Monday night.

Council leader Labour councillor Georgia Gould said: “Those who have family in the region will be feeling this even more deeply but all of us feel the pain as human beings.

“But the conflict is not here. And I am proud to be a Jewish leader standing beside Muslim councillors, and councillors from all faiths and none to say we stand together for unity in Camden.”