Pro-Palestinian campaigners have rejected a request by the Metropolitan Police to call off a planned demonstration in London on Armistice Day this Saturday.
The Met urged organisers to “urgently reconsider” as senior officers are concerned about “criminal acts by breakaway groups intent on fuelling disorder.”
The campaigners dismissed the concern, saying the police had failed to present evidence as to why the risk would be increased on that particular day. They also pointed to “political pressure being placed on the police by the government and right wing political groups.”
It comes after a number of Cabinet ministers hit out at the planned protest following concerns that demonstrators will disrupt the two-minute silence observed on every Armistice Day to honour Britain’s war dead and other Armistice Day events.
Downing Street said the government would “carefully consider” any application to prevent the march.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said last week that protesting on Armistice Day is “provocative and disrespectful” and warned of a “clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated” despite the march avoiding the Cenotaph this week.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has branded the recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches,” said it’s “entirely unacceptable to desecrate Armistice Day with a hate march through London.”
In a statement on Monday, the Met said organisers of the protest had refused to postpone any demonstrations following a meeting with officers earlier in the day, and pleaded with the groups to “urgently reconsider.”
“The risk of violence and disorder linked to breakaway groups is growing,” said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan. “This is of concern ahead of a significant and busy weekend in the capital.
“Our message to organisers is clear: Please, we ask you to urgently reconsider. It is not appropriate to hold any protests in London this weekend,” he said.
The Met said senior officers are concerned about the risks “despite the positive work of organisers who have supported tens of thousands of people to protest peacefully and lawfully” since Oct. 7, when the Israel–Hamas war broke out.
Demonstrators have stages multiple protests and sit-ins in recently weeks, including a large weekly march through central London, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Met previously estimated that one of the marches attracted some 100,000 demonstrators.
The vast majority of the demonstrations went without violence, although controversial chants such as “from the river to the sea” have rung in London’s streets.
‘Escalation in Violence’
The Met said more than 160 people have been arrested during the past month for offences including “racially motivated public offences, violence, and assaulting police officers.”“There has been an escalation in violence and disorder linked to protests, often perpetrated by breakaway groups who have no interest in demonstration causes,” the force said.
On Friday, the Met also said officers had made 99 arrests during the week in relation Just Stop Oil (JSO) protests “in week one of a four-week protracted campaign” by the climate activist group.
The organisers of the pro-Palestinian rally have insisted the march will go on as planned on Armistice Day.
In a joint statement, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Palestinian Forum in Britain, and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said they are “deeply concerned about the Met’s statement that urged them to postpone the march on Saturday.
“We met earlier today with the police to finalise the route details of the planned march on Saturday going from Marble Arch to the [U.S.] Embassy—well away from the centre of London and Whitehall. At that meeting the police made clear, as reaffirmed in their statement, that the marches we had organised had been overwhelmingly peaceful with low levels of arrest,” the groups said.
“They asked us to consider not marching this Saturday and postponing for a week because of the sensitivity of this weekend. It is categorically untrue that the police told us that it was not appropriate to protest this weekend. They raised a concern about the possibility of breakaway groups leaving the march but were not able to provide any evidence as to why this risk would be increased on Saturday 11 November.”
‘Political Pressure’
The groups said they “recognise the political pressure being placed on the police by the government and right wing political groups” but “emphasise that they had and have a responsibility to withstand that pressure and act to uphold democratic freedoms including the right to protest.”They also asserted that the pressure came from “the same voices actively resisting the call for a ceasefire despite overwhelming public support for that call.
“The idea that it is acceptable for Israel to keep bombing and killing Palestinians in Gaza including over 4,000 children, but not for people to protest peacefully against these crimes is grotesque,” they said.
Speaking to Times Radio on Tuesday, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said, “I think that advice from the police should be taken very seriously and I would invite the protest leaders to do so.”
Mr. Sunak’s spokesman reiterated the prime minister’s belief that the scheduling of any protest on Armistice Day is “provocative and disrespectful.”
He also said the government would “carefully consider” any application to prevent the march.
The Israel–Hamas war was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing some 300 soldiers and 1,100 civilians. Some of the victims, including those of children, were found to have been raped, decapitated, and burnt.
Israel subsequently ordered a total siege on Hamas-controlled Gaza, and launched missiles and ground assaults, in a bid to wipe out Hamas.
The Hamas-backed Gaza Health Ministry has claimed that over 10,000 people, including 4,000 children, have been killed in Gaza since the war began a month ago.
The UK government has called for humanitarian “pauses” to allow the flow of aid and evacuees, but has not called for an immediate ceasefire. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly previously said he had seen no signs Hamas would abide by a ceasefire.
