Dozens of far-right militants led by Tommy Robinson, the controversial former member of the British National Party (BNP), struggled with the police and interrupted the two minutes of silence on Armistice Day at the Cenotaph in London.
The altercation occurred in the run-up to the largest pro-Palestine march to date in the British capital, which has brought together half a million protesters and in which there have been more than a hundred detainees among the far-right groups that tried to burst the Cenotaph ceremony and provoke clashes with the pro-Palestinian march, according to Scotland Yard in the early afternoon. Some of those arrested were accused of “assault on law enforcement” and some of them for carrying knives. Some 2,000 police officers ensure security during the protests in a device comparable to that of the march against the Iraq war that brought together two million protesters.
About 150 pro-Palestine protesters were arrested after the march for disturbing public order in the Belgravia neighborhood, after setting off fireworks and shouting inflammatory slogans while covering their faces, according to Scotland Yard. The police stressed, however, that there were no notable incidents in the march that brought together more than 300,000 protesters on the streets of London (800,000, according to the organizers).
Scotland Yard has created exclusion zones between the celebrations of Armistice Day and the pro-Palestine march to avoid incidents. The police warned, however, of the risk of violent counter-protests throughout the day.
Shouting “England until I die!”, Tommy Robinson and his followers tried to force their way to the Cenotaph, near Westminster, prompting the police to intervene. “It’s not pro-Palestine, it’s anti-Britain,” protesters chanted while waving Union Jacks and English flags.
The pro-Palestine march started more than a mile from the Cenotaph and an hour later the police erected protective barriers along the route to prevent the confluence of the two events.
The pro-Palestine march left Hyde Park at noon and passed without notable incident until it reached Victoria station, at the entrance to the Duke of York pub, where the police intervened to cordon off a group of men who shouted insults against the Palestinians. protesters. “Don’t pay attention to them, they’re just looking for headlines,” alleged one of the agents as he urged the protesters to continue along the designated route.
To cries of “Cease fire now!” and “We are all Palestinians”, the incessant river of protesters ran through the center of London until they crossed the Thames and paraded in front of the American embassy, ??protected by a police wall.
The chief commissioner of Scotland Yard, Mark Rowley, was in favor of authorizing the pro-Palestine march despite pressure from Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who accused the police of “favoritism” towards left-wing protesters. The five opposition parties have demanded Braverman’s resignation for reigniting tensions and divisions in the run-up to Saturday’s massive march.
Braverman described the pro-Palestine demonstrations as “hate marches” and this week challenged the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, with an article in The Times harshly criticizing Scotland Yard. A month ago, the Interior Secretary recommended to the police that they consider the flying of a Palestinian flag as “a criminal offense” in the context of Israel’s war against Hamas.
Among the protesters were dozens of members of the Jews for Palestine coalition. Among them Nick Sherwood, 70 years old, Jewish and South African by origin, ready to make the comparison on the fly… “What Israel has been doing for decades with the Palestinians is the same thing they did in South Africa with the blacks and it is called ” Apartheid.” And what they are doing now is a massacre of the civilian population, that is why it is important that the Jewish community raise its voice and say “Not in our name.”
“They cannot accuse us of being anti-Semitic for calling for a ceasefire,” he added. “Nor for interfering in Armistice Day… At the end of the day, that is what we are asking for, to stop the war and find a peaceful solution. That is what 95% of the people who stand for is manifesting.”
“This is not a “hate march”, as our Secretary of the Interior “Cruella” Braverman says, the instigator of hate is in any case she,” alleges Nick Sherwood. “The position of the British Government is pathetic, from the moment Rishi Sunak told Netanyahu: ‘We want you to win.'”
Sunak intervened early on Saturday asking protesters to exercise their right to protest “in a respectful and peaceful manner”, taking into account the “sacred” nature of Poppy Day for the British, in memory of the soldiers and civilians killed in the First World War.
At the end of the march, the premier condemned the “totally unacceptable scenes of violence carried out by the English Defense League (EDL) and groups associated and sympathizing with Hamas in the march for Palestine.” He also regretted both “the attacks suffered by the police” at the hands of far-right militants and “the chants and banners in favor of Hamas” at the demonstration. “The fear and intimidation that the Jewish community is suffering is deplorable,” Sunak warned. “All criminal acts must be responded to with the force of the law”
“More than 10,000 Palestinians have died under the bombs of the Israeli army and with the complicity of the United Kingdom,” Amiyah, daughter of Palestinians and member of the Friends of Al Aqsa group, which called the march, stressed about the march. . “We are here to remember it, because the death toll rises week after week and our politicians are too cowardly to even call for a ceasefire.”
Celine Hendrig, a British woman with Palestinian blood and a distant family in the West Bank, joined the demonstration with a group of mothers carrying red-painted dolls in their hands… “This is the cruel reality that women are facing day after day.” women and children of Gaza. We take to the streets to simply ask for this massacre to end.”
The pro-Palestinian march extended three kilometers and had no major incidents, beyond those caused by the counter-protesters. Scotland Yard issued orders at the end to identify two protesters with pro-Hamas ribbons and banners.
Throughout the journey, the protesters sang the chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, considered by Suella Braverman as implicit support for the destruction of Israel, but largely ignored by the agents. Braverman herself was accused of having instigated, with her statements, the provocations by members of the far-right English Defense League (EDL) during Armistice Day.
