More than two dozen arrested after Palestine protestors defy Met’s calls for calm

The Metropolitan police have made more than two dozen arrests, after pro-Palestine protestors breached police orders to stay away from the BBC and central London synagogues.

The march, which contained protestors carrying placards emblazoned with swastikas and antisemitic tropes, took place after the organisers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign chose to defy police restrictions on the location of the march. 

Defying a police mandate against the march entering an area covering the BBC’s New Broadcasting House and the nearby Central Synagogue – where congregants have been attending services throughout the day – a few hundred of the approximately 5000 demonstrators were stopped by rows of police officers and vehicles.

Police make an arrest after protesters gather on Whitehall (Getty Images)

A large group of demonstrators who forced their way through the line of police were then held by a second blockade at the northwest corner of Trafalgar Square.

The Met said at around 5pm, half an hour after the protest was set to finish, said: “Around 20 to 30 people who breached the conditions are still contained in Trafalgar Square. They are being arrested. Others have already been arrested.

Police arrested serial demonstrator Chris Nineham, head steward of the march and vice chair of the Stop The War coalition.

Police officers on Whitehall (Getty)

Demonstrators chanted “The police is IDF” and “Fascist pigs off our streets”.

One man who carried a placard “suggesting support for a proscribed organisation” was arrested, according to police.

At least one protester was arrested after entering the exclusion zone the Met had set up around the Portland Place, where the BBC offices are located, and refused to leave.

At the start of the march in Whitehall, speeches outside the Cenotaph were given by former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, activist Leanne Mohammed and Ismail Patel, Chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa.

The “ceasefire” march, which was to begin at noon on Saturday and end at 4:30pm, was organised to demand “an end to Israel’s ongoing attacks on Palestinians, a permanent ceasefire, and an end to all arms sales to Israel”, according to Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director Ben Jamal.
But at least one speech called for the “dismantling of the colonialist Zionist entity”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said during his speech the imminent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was “only the start” and that there would be “many more” Palestinian demonstrations in London to come.

Less than a day before the hostage-ceasefire deal is set to take effect, other chants outside 10 Downing Street included calls for intifada.

Many placards accused the BBC of being controlled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “infested” by “Zionists”, while others said the Labour Party and Prime Minister Keir Starmer were complicit in “genocide”.

Other signs accused Israel of wanting to implement a “greater Israel expansion project” that would see it taking over neighbouring countries.

Today’s march follows weeks of disagreement between police and PSC over the route over the march and disturbances at the nearby synagogue, whose membership pleaded with the Met to intervene. 

Police earlier this week wrote to PSC mandating a new route for the march that would avoid the offices of the BBC and the Central Synagogue. The PSC said that request amounted to “repressive restrictions” and “a grave violation of our right to protest”.

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