Around 300,000 people marched in London on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, under close police surveillance to try to avoid excesses while nationalist counter-protesters were also present in large numbers in the capital.
This “National March for Palestine” started around 12:00 p.m. local time, shortly after commemorations of the First World War armistice also held this weekend across the country.
Flying Palestinian flags and brandishing signs demanding to “Stop the bombing of Gaza”, demonstrators shout “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now”, five weeks after the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, which in response massively bombs the Gaza Strip.
A major security system has been deployed in the British capital to prevent possible excesses, the police having already arrested nearly 200 people during previous marches organized since October 7.
This is also being held against the advice of the government, which deemed it “disrespectful” during this commemoration weekend.
On Friday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on protesters to march “peacefully and respectfully”.
Altercations
Nearly 2,000 police officers are mobilized and the head of operations within the London police, Laurence Taylor, stressed that this weekend would be “particularly tense and difficult”.
In particular, he expects nationalist counter-protesters, including hooligans, to come to the site, increasing the risk of confrontations.
According to several British media, Tommy Robinson, founder of the far-right group English Defense League, is among these counter-protesters.
Scuffles took place at the end of the morning between the police and nationalist activists who tried to approach the Whitehall area where the memorial to British soldiers who died in combat is located.
The agents “suffered violence and attacks from counter-protesters who threw bottles and other projectiles at them. We will respond firmly to this disorder and this unacceptable aggression,” the Metropolitan Police said on X (formerly Twitter).
She claimed to have arrested two people, suspected of possessing a knife and a stick, and is currently detaining “a large group” of these counter-protesters behind a security cordon on a street in the capital.
Political crisis
The organization of the march turned into a political crisis, the government having put pressure on the police to ban it, which the latter refused.
Rishi Sunak warned that he would hold police chief Mark Rowley “responsible” for any excesses.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman, who described pro-Palestinian protests as “hate marches,” sparked a flood of criticism after publicly accusing the police of having “double standards” in their handling demonstrations.
Friday evening, she affirmed that she “totally supported” the police, but several political leaders accused her of adding fuel to the fire before the procession took place.
Several opposition elected officials again called on Saturday for his departure from the government, such as Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf.
“The far right was encouraged by the Minister of the Interior […] They are now attacking the police on Armistice Day. The position of the Minister of the Interior is untenable. She must resign,” he wrote on X.
The war has left 1,200 dead in Israel, the majority civilians killed in the unprecedented attack on October 7 by Hamas, according to a downwardly revised toll from the Israeli government, and 11,078 dead in the bombings carried out in retaliation by Israel in the Gaza Strip, mainly civilians too, including 4,506 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
Since the start of the conflict, the United Kingdom has experienced an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts.