British playwright embarks on 150-mile fasting pilgrimage for Palestine

A British playwright has embarked on a 150-mile fasting pilgrimage to raise funds for schoolchildren in Gaza and to stand up against Islamophobia.

Peter Oswald, a former writer in residence at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, set off from Bristol on Tuesday and will finish his 13-day journey in Parliament Square in London at the end of March.

The 59-year-old from Devon will also fast from dawn to dusk, marking the holy month of Ramadan in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the global Muslim community as part of his “Pilgrimage4Palestine”.

The award-winning playwright and poet will take part in poetry performances along the route, reading a mixture of his own work about Palestine and poetry by young Palestinians.

He will be joined by his wife, Alice Oswald, former Oxford professor of poetry and BBC Radio 4 poet-in-residence, for some of the journey.

Mr Oswald, who is raising funds for The Hands Up project, an educational charity that links volunteer teachers around the world with schoolchildren in Gaza, said he has been involved with the charity for almost a decade.

“I’ve been teaching and helping schoolchildren in Gaza and the West Bank since 2017,” Mr Oswald told the PA news agency.

“That kind of personal contact with schoolchildren who you know are being heavily bombed is something that you obviously can’t ignore.

“I was actually involved with a group of schoolchildren in Gaza who were performing and rehearsing their own shortened version of King Lear. What they were doing was unimaginably beautiful.

“The way they acted, the way they spoke, I was very, very moved by that.

“Then suddenly the entire town was obliterated and that for me is something that lives with me all the time.”

Mr Oswald, who will be observing Ramadan during his journey, said he plans to walk 12 to 13 miles a day and speak at events each evening.

The route will follow the Kennet and Avon Canal towpath to Reading before continuing through into central London.

“I’ve been doing some 12-mile walks fasting and the fasting is challenging, but the walking takes your mind off it,” said Mr Oswald.

“We’re fasting in solidarity with Muslims in this country pushing back against Islamophobia.

“Obviously, here in Bristol, where I am now, we had the terrible riots and the attack on the Mercury hotel during last summer.

“When the riots ran through the whole country, I became extra concerned for the safety of my Muslim friends and their families.”

Mr Oswald has described his pilgrimage as a “peace march” and said he will “call through the soles of his feet to the soul of Britain”.