Met Police Arrest 145 in Armistice Day Protests

Officers from the Metropolitan Police on duty beside the Cenotaph in Whitehall, central London, during pro-Palestinian protest march which is taking place from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Jeff Moore/PA

Some 145 people were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests and counter-protests on Armistice Day, with the Metropolitan Police hunting for more “hate crime” suspects.

The arrests were for offences including “assault, possession of weapons, criminal damage, public order, inciting racial hatred, and possession of drugs,” the Met said on Sunday.

Seven men have been charged with offences including criminal damage, resisting arrest, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class A drugs, being drunk and disorderly, and assault on an emergency worker.

A large number of counter-protesters who were trying to reach the main pro-Palestinian march were arrested to “prevent a breach of the peace.”

People during a pro-Palestinian protest in London, marching from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Aaron Chown/PA

The Met said a total of 91 people were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace, adding those who were not suspected of other offences had been released.

“This is a power officers have available to them where there is an imminent threat of harm. Once the imminent threat has passed, it is normal for those arrested to be released. Only where it continues will a person be put before the courts,” the Met said.

A senior Met officer claimed police experienced “extreme violence from the right wing protestors” while breakaway groups from the 300,000-strong pro-Palestinian March behaved “in an intimidating manner” at the end of the day.

Protesters from both sides have thrown objects at officers, and nine officers were injured while preventing “a violent crowd” from getting to the Cenotaph, according to the Met.

Counter-protesters clash with police in Parliament Square in central London, during a pro-Palestinian protest march which is taking place from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Jeff Moore/PA

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hit out at the “violent, wholly unacceptable scenes” from “the EDL [English Defence League],” an anti-Islam group, and “Hamas sympathisers,” saying “the despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”

It’s unclear whether the EDL still exists as an organisation. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, commonly known by his alias Tommy Robinson, who founded the group and left it in 2013, has called on “young English and British men” to mount a vigilante assembly in London on Saturday to “show respect and to make sure that there is respect shown.”

He pleaded with followers to “behave” but also said they would be “prepared to defend” if necessary, claiming the police can’t be trusted to do their job.

It followed concerns that the Cenotaph or other war memorials may be desecrated, a concern that was echoed by the prime minister although the marching route was moved away from Whitehall this week. It also came after Home Secretary Suella Braverman insisted the pro-Palestinian protests are “hate marches” and said police chiefs are perceived as playing “favourites” with protesters.

Most of the pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks have been non-violent, although The Telegraph reported that groups with links to the Hamas terrorist group, which started the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, have been organising the protests along with anti-war groups.

The Met on Friday night set up exclusion zones at locations including the Cenotaph, saying “anyone believed to be part of, or associated with, the pro-Palestinian demonstration trying to assemble in this area can be arrested.”

Senior Officer: ‘Extreme Violence’

On Saturday morning, the Met said the two minutes silence, which is observed at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day every year in remembrance of Britain’s war dead, was “marked respectfully and without incident” in an update on X, formerly known as Twitter.

But it also said officers had “faced aggression from counter-protestors” who were “not one cohesive group.”

In a video posted by the Met, counter-protesters can be heard shouting, “You’re not English anymore.” The Met said officers “were met with violence and abuse by counter-protestors who threw bottles and other missiles at them.”

The Met also said counter-protesters threw a metal barrier at police officers.

In another video circulated on social media, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters could be heard chanting what appeared to be “[expletive] the pig” at the police in the evening, with fireworks launched and a few protesters trying to calm the group.

People set off fireworks during a pro-Palestinian protest in London, marching from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Aaron Chown/PA

House Secretary Michael Gove, surrounded by a group of British Transport Police (BTP)  officers, was mobbed by hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “shame on you” at London’s Victoria Station.

In a statement, Met Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said some of the counter-protesters arrived at the Cenotaph “intoxicated, aggressive, and clearly looking for confrontation.”

“Nine officers were injured during the day, two requiring hospital treatment with a fractured elbow and a suspected dislocated hip. Those officers were injured on Whitehall as they prevented a violent crowd getting to the Cenotaph while a remembrance service was taking place,” he said.

The police chief said the group of counter-protesters were “largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them being able to confront the main march.”

“Many in these groups were stopped and searched and weapons including a knife, a baton, and knuckleduster were found as well as class A drugs,” he said.

The senior officer said what he described as “extreme violence from the right wing protestors towards the police” was “extraordinary and deeply concerning.”

He said the main pro-Palestinian March, which the Met estimated attracted 300,000 demonstrators, “did not see the sort of physical violence carried out by the right wing” but “breakaway groups [had been] behaving in an intimidating manner” in the evening.

“Officers intercepted a group of 150 who were wearing face coverings and firing fireworks. Arrests were made after some of the fireworks struck officers in the face,” he said.

People during a pro-Palestinian protest in London, marching from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Aaron Chown/PA

“There were also a number of serious offences identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organisations during the protest that we are actively investigating,” he added.

‘Hate Crime’ Suspects

In addition to arrests made on Saturday, the Met also posted photos of six pro-Palestinian protesters on X and appealed for information.

In one of the photos, a woman is seen carrying a poster picturing a swastika in the star of David, and the words “No British Politician should be a ‘Friend of Israel.’” The Met didn’t specify any suspected offence.

In descriptions of four other photos showing five people, the Met said the individuals are each under investigation in relation to “a hate crime.”

One of the photos shows a man making a speech, two show three demonstrators walking, while another photo shows a woman holding a poster depicting a drawing of a coconut tree with the heads of Mr. Sunak and Ms. Braverman—both of whom are of Indian heritage—among the coconuts under the tree.

There is no “hate crime” in England’s statute book. The police record any criminal offence which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual or perceived race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or sexuality as a hate crime. Once a defendant is convicted of a crime, the Crown Prosecution Service can ask the court to increase the sentence if the crime has been flagged as a hate crime.

Meanwhile, BTP is also looking for five people, including a woman who’s suspected of “an anti-semitic hate crime at Victoria Station” and four men allegedly involved in a “racially aggravated altercation at Waterloo Station.”

In a statement posted on X, the prime minister said, “I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine. The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”

Mr. Sunak said the scenes disrespect the memory of “those who fought and died for our freedoms.”

“That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protest. The fear and intimidation the Jewish Community have experienced over the weekend is deplorable,” the prime minister wrote.

“All criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law. That is what I told the Met Police Commissioner [Sir Mark Rowley] on Wednesday, that is what they are accountable for and that is what I expect,” he said, adding that he will meet Sir Mark in the coming days.

Labour Amplifies Call to Sack Home Secretary

Labour has ramped up its call to sack the home secretary, with shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper telling Sky News’s “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme that she doesn’t see how Ms. Braverman “can continue to do this job.”

She accused Ms. Braverman of launching an unprecedented attack on the impartiality of the police“ and ”deliberately inflam[ing] tensions in the run-up to remembrance weekend.”

Ms. Braverman published an article in The Times of London on Wednesday, saying senior police officers have been perceived as being bias and urged them to be tougher on the pro-Palestinian march, which she repeatedly described as a “hate march.”

Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has called on his party to back a ceasefire, labelled counter-protesters at the Cenotaph “far-right” and claimed the violence was “a direct result of the home secretary’s words” in a post on X.

Counter-protesters (L) and pro-Palestinian protesters in Trafalgar Square in central London, after a pro-Palestinian protest march which was taking place from Hyde Park to the U.S. embassy in Vauxhall, on Nov. 11, 2023. Victoria Jones/PA

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer published an article in The Telegraph on Saturday, claiming the home secretary “demeans her office” as “few people in public life have done more recently to whip up division, set the British people against one another, and sow the seeds of hatred and distrust” than her.

Downing Street said it did not clear the home secretary’s article and is looking into the details of what happened, and that Mr. Sunaks still has confidence in Ms. Braverman.

Also speaking to the “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the violence at the Cenotaph has “nothing to do” with Ms. Braverman’s article.

“It is the case that some people just turned up determined—by the way, nothing to do with what the home secretary said in terms of having already said they would be here doing these things—to disrupt things here at the Cenotaph,” he said.

“This counter-protest was already going to happen,” the minister added.

The Jewish Minister told BBC’s “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg” programme he wouldn’t use the words Ms. Braverman has used, but believes the chant “from the river to the sea” is “clearly an anti-Semetic trope.”

In a thread on X, Ms. Braverman thanked “braved police officers” for their “professionalism in the face of violence and aggression, and said it’s an “outrage” that some officers were injured.

She also said “further action is necessary” over the pro-Palestinian marches.

“The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards, and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Antisemitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling,” she wrote.

“This can’t go on. Week by week, the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence, and antisemitism. Members of the public are being mobbed and intimidated. Jewish people in particular feel threatened. Further action is necessary.”

The Home Secretary previously called on police chiefs to consider whether some flags and chants in pro-Palestinian rallies are illegal, but the Met Commissioner said officers can only enforce the law, which he said is currently not designed to deal with extremists.