This is “the largest march” organized since October 7 in the British capital, according to the authorities.
Large pro-Palestinian rally in the United Kingdom. Around 300,000 people marched peacefully on Saturday November 11 in London to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The demonstration was placed under close surveillance in order to avoid excesses, the police having already arrested nearly 200 people during previous marches for Palestine organized since October 7.
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The police, citing the figure of around 300,000 people, estimated that it was “the most important step” organized in London since October 7, the date of the Hamas terrorist attacks. Flying Palestinian flags and holding signs demanding “stop the bombings on Gaza”the demonstrators shouted “Free Palestine” (“liberate Palestine”) and “Cease fire now” (“ceasefire now”), five weeks after the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel, which, in response, massively bombed the Gaza Strip.
Members of Extinction Rebellion placed “hundreds of children’s shoes” in Trafalgar Square, “representing all the young Israelis and Palestinians who died in the current fighting”detailed the association.
Far-right counter-protesters
The demonstration was held against the advice of the government, which deemed it “disrespectful” on this weekend of commemorations of the armistice of the First World War. On Friday evening, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on protesters to march “peacefully and respectfully”.
Nationalist counter-protesters also came in numbers to the capital, according to police. According to several British media, Tommy Robinson, founder of the far-right group English Defense League, was present among them.
Scuffles took place at the end of the morning between the police and some of these activists, some of whom were waving the flag of England or the Union Jack, and who were trying to approach the area of Whitehall, where the memorial is located. in tribute to British soldiers who died in combat. At the beginning of the afternoon, the police claimed on X to have arrested 82 of these counter-protesters “in order to prevent peace from being compromised” whereas they “tried to join the march” pro-Palestinian.