In Protest For Palestine: Interview With Activist and Comedian Jen Brister

On the 1st of March 2025, the streets of Bath were lit up by a red line of fabric measuring half a kilometre, carried by crowds of passionate protestors. This line served to represent the desire for a geographical boundary, drawn to protect Palestinians from invasion and genocide. Organised by Bath Campaigns, Through The Cracks and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, the protest drew crowds from all walks of life. What they had in common was a need for justice and a rage towards those who seek to take it away.

The protest began with words from Ken Loach (read by Ameerah Lebaqa), Polly Campbell-Preston, Dr Feda Shahin, Benazir Jatoi and Jen Brister. Each speaker expressed intense passion and emotion, calling on the wider world to see the atrocities being committed around them. What struck me most of all was the message of resilience — that despite the purging of their land, the Palestinians continue to fight. Chant leader Majdi Lebaqa spoke of how his neighbours in Palestine were already rebuilding their town brick by brick, despite the devastation. 

After the march, protestors gathered to listen to Anna Ryan as she sang ‘The Rocks of Palestine’ by Lankum. Amidst the striking silence of the crowd, Anna’s last words rang out powerfully across the square:  “No matter how you torment them, and butcher them like swine, you'll never take possession of the rocks of Palestine.”

I was lucky enough to interview Jen Brister, comedian and activist, about her experience with speaking up for Palestine:

You spoke at the protest about your world-view changing as a result of the Gazan genocide. Could you elaborate?

We've been made to see what, if left unchecked, a coloniser will do. It's not like Israel is the first one to do it - Britain did it for centuries. Palestine is a microcosm of everything wrong with capitalism, [and the] individualism that is spawned from it. It's all distilled into Palestine because we see it at its most extreme. 

Sometimes it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of oppression. How do you combat those feelings, if you have them?

Of course I have them! What's happening with people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump at the moment is [they understand] how the left think. It's about bombarding us with misery - that can paralyze you. The thing to remember is that your voice is really important. When you raise your voice, you help other people raise theirs. Then you have a collective, and the feeling of power can come back. You don't need the majority of people to agree with you to create change. You need 1% of people on the planet to go “this is fucked up” - that 1% can change everything.

via Jen Brister on Facebook

You use your platform for good. Do you have any tips for people wanting to do the same?

Just do it. If there's something you want to talk about, you should feel like you can. You will always get people that think differently, but remember to stay true to your conscience. A lot of the time we're second guessing ourselves. And on a lot of occasions there are two sides, but on some there aren't. There's one side and that is: don't kill children, don't carpet bomb a civilian population, don't starve a civilian population, don't kettle people into a piece of land and then murder them. There isn't a flip side. I'm very confident about that. 

Could you let us know about any projects that you're working on that we could support?

I would love for people to check out this non-profit that I've co-founded with Georgia Takacs. It's called ‘All Our Relations’, you can find it on ‘allourrelations.co.uk’. We're supporting 18 families in Gaza right now. We're asking people if they would consider giving us a monthly donation.

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