The streets of the center of the British capital were marked this Saturday (11) by a large anti-Israel and pro-Palestine demonstration. The London Metropolitan Police (Met) estimated the number of participants at 300,000 and arrested 120 people.
Among those arrested are Hamas supporters and “extreme right-wing bullies” staging a counter-protest, as characterized by the newspaper The Times. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on police for both groups to be dealt with with “the full and firm force of the law”.
The British celebrated Armistice Day on the same date, when the First World War ended. The president is in an open dispute with the head of the Met, Mark Rowley, for allowing the celebration to co-occur with the demonstration on the conflict in the Middle East.
In fact, footage showed anti-Israel protesters harassing a couple who were holding a charity sale of poppy brooches, a symbol of the armistice and the sacrifice of British soldiers a century ago. There is also a record of the war cry “Palestine free of the river [Jordão] to the sea [Mediterrâneo]”, which implies the annihilation of Israel, contained entirely between these two borders. Posters mixed the Star of David, symbol of Israel, with the Nazi swastika, and compared the Gaza Strip to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where a million Jews were killed by the Nazis.
The protest was the fifth in London since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. It was the most violent, judging by the number of prisoners.
Most of those arrested were “far-right” pro-Israel counter-protesters, but communities secretary Michael Gove had to take refuge in a police van when he was confronted by dozens of anti-Israel activists near Victoria tube station who were shouting “shame”.
Although the theme of the demonstration was the defense of the Palestinian cause, in images that circulated on social media it is possible to see Hamas flags being displayed without apparent objection from the other protesters. In mid-afternoon, Sherwin Savadkoohi, a man of Iranian origin, displayed a poster near Vauxhall Bridge in which he wrote “Hamas [é o] Islamic State.” Masked men surrounded him, tried to remove the sign from his hands, and one allegedly tried to stab Savadkoohi.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman declared that the people marching through the streets were “hate protesters” and “Islamists”, a term for the political ideology of Islamic supremacy, not synonymous with Muslim. She also accused the Met of favoritism on one side in the war in the Middle East for allowing the demonstration.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Braverman’s words were a direct cause of the street clashes, a view echoed by a former deputy director of the Met. Many of the arrested right-wing protesters are part of the anti-immigration movement, such as Tommy Robinson, who said he called his followers into the streets to protect the Cenotaph, a monument to those who fell in the First World War. From their perspective, the monument was threatened with vandalism by pro-Palestinian protesters in previous marches.
According to the Teams, right-wing protesters broke the police security cordon. But the demonstration with 300,000 people began kilometers away from the Cenotaph, in Hyde Park.
Sunak said those who were violent were a minority: “The deplorable actions of a minority of people harm those who chose to express their views peacefully,” declared the Prime Minister. “Armistice Day is a time to come together as a nation and remember those who fought and died for our freedoms. What we saw today does not defend the honor of our armed forces, it is complete disrespect.”
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