Community leaders and one of the country’s most senior barristers have urged the police to move a major Gaza march away from a London synagogue amid concerns that the Met is failing to protect Jewish life in the city.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)-organised rally on January 18 – a Shabbat – is planned to begin at the BBC headquarters in Portland Place, just 500 metres from Central Synagogue.
The shul’s Rabbi Lerer told the JC that the Gaza protests had been damaging his synagogue’s ability to function, with events cancelled and congregants being intimidated on their way to worship.
He said that had reported to the police hearing chants for “genocide of Jews” from his synagogue, but that the information had been met with a “shrug”.
Protesters gather for a ‘Stop The War Coalition’ demonstration against Israeli strikes on Gaza and Lebanon on October 5, 2024 in London. (Getty Images)
Previous marches sanctioned by the police have affected other London synagogues, including Western Marble Arch and Westminster, disrupting their services and forcing Jews to stay away.
Rabbis and congregants told the JC about police cordons protecting shul entrances from baying protesters and of the difficulty in “doing Judaism” on march days.
The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, said this was a “critical moment” for the Met to demonstrate its commitment to protecting the community, having recently criticised the force for failing in its duty to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe when attending shul.
However, one source who has advised activists in their police negotiations said that previous legal victories by litigious protest groups had cowed the police from taking a more robust stance when dealing with the marches.
In 2019, Extinction Rebellion won a High Court challenge against the Met after the force banned its London protests, leading to hundreds of protesters being able to claim compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
This view of the police was reinforced by comments from senior barrister Lord Pannick KC, who said: “That the marches should not be forming up near or passing near synagogues is clearly a power the police have the ability to impose via conditions under the Public Order Act.
“The impact on the synagogues of the marches in the past 14 months has plainly been ‘serious disruption’ (the legal test), on individual march days and cumulatively,” he said.
Lord Pannick said that he was one of a number of lawyers and community leaders deeply concerned about the Met’s approach to the protests which, he said, often mean congregants are forced to hear activists shouting “hostility to Israel, and indeed sometimes their support for Hamas and for Hezbollah” while walking to shul.
A protester wears a “Free Palestine” face mask as people gather for a ‘Stop The War Coalition’ demonstration against Israeli strikes on Gaza and Lebanon on October 5, 2024 in London. (Getty Images)
The leading lawyer said moving the march would not be “a significant curtailment” on the participants’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
“If the police are serious about in their desire to reduce the impact of these protests on the Jewish community, then imposing conditions to ensure that marches neither start nor pass near synagogues is a power they should indeed employ.”
Now, leading figures in the Jewish community are calling for the Met to ban two of the protest’s seven formation points, one near the BBC headquarters at Portland Place and the other on Park Lane, which are near to London shuls.
Rabbi Lerer of Central Synagogue said that he has had to move the timing of Shabbat services back by an hour twice since the Gaza protests began after October 7.
Central Synagogue, Great Portland Street
On a march on May 18, Shabbat services at Central were interrupted by protesters as they disembarked a train at Great Portland Street station. “We could hear people chanting ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ while we were praying,” Rabbi Lerer said.
“Communities are not able to function in the way that they have been for 150-plus years because of this.”
He said the marches could be moved to a Sunday, when the synagogue is holding a much smaller service.
“But to do it on the Jewish Sabbath, it’s preposterous.”
He said the racism faced by Jews was not perceived as seriously as the hate encountered by other communities and dubbed Prime Minister Keir Starmer “two-tier Keir” in his handling of the situation.
“No other minority would be suffering this long, consistently. It’s double standards when it comes to antisemitism versus other forms of racism. You can imagine if these were happening on a Friday, past a mosque, or imagine if there was a group of bigoted people who were anti-gay walking past a pride festival. It just wouldn’t happen.”
Lloyd Keisner, the chairman at Central Synagogue, said that the shul experiences an “immediate drop off” in the number of people attending their events when a protest is announced to take place on Shabbat.
“Because we’re an observant congregation, many of our members can’t carry mobile phones on Shabbat, which means that they have no way of knowing in real time if they’re walking directly into the path of these marchers when attending or leaving the shul.
“There’s a great chance we’re walking straight into marches at Portland Place. And we are suited and booted coming out of synagogue.
“We’re probably not the most difficult group of people to pick out. But why should we have that anxiety?
“We’ve got a lot of elderly members and we’ve got quite a few members with young children, so we feel the impact all the time, and we feel we’re in the firing line with nobody doing anything about it.
“I think the Metropolitan Police are saying everything that we would like to hear. Plenty of platitudes, but no action. Because if there was action, this march on the 18th of January, which we’re dreading, wouldn’t happen. And certainly wouldn’t happen in any proximity of our synagogue.”
Rabbi Epstein of Western Marble Arch told the JC that on many occasions since October 7, pro-Palestine protesters had congregated at Marble Arch station, even though the official start-up point is at the Hilton, leading to severe disruption for congregants travelling to the shul for the Shabbat service.
The Western Marble Arch Synagogue at 1 Wallenberg Place
One congregant of the synagogue, who preferred to stay anonymous, told the JC that he no longer attends the Shabbat service for fear of the protests. On one occasion, he had to request for the police to escort him past the march.
“On days when marches occur, I am unable to attend synagogue services leaving me with no accessible place of worship on these days. The atmosphere during these marches has felt hostile and violent, creating an environment that I do not want myself or my children to be exposed to. These repeated regular marches cause significant anxiety for us as a family.”
Rabbi Epstein told the JC that while there’s a “general sense of discomfort across the Anglo-Jewry”, there’s an “absolutely specific, genuine fear” for his congregants, because the marches are happening “literally right on our doorstep”.
The upshot, he said, is that fewer people come to his shul because of the fear of running into the activists, and that the community was suffering as a result almost more than during Covid. “They are genuinely people who do not come to synagogue. They’re not really coming out on a Shabbat.”
He said the protests are “depleting the entire fabric of community experience in the West End”, because Jewish Londoners who previously walked to and from services from their homes in Marylebone, Belgravia, Fitzrovia, Hyde Park, Kensington and Chelsea are no longer attending.
“If you don’t get a Shabbat morning and it’s one of the more religious areas, you’ll find there’s a lot of Judaism happening around and about all the way through the week. But in places like here in central London, especially for tourists, [the main event is] Shabbat morning. That’s when we do our Judaism.”
Rabbi Epstein is also in correspondence with Jewish tourists weekly, who write to him and ask for advice on whether “they can or can’t cover their heads, whether they should or shouldn’t come to shul”.
He told the JC that he wrote to a Met Gold Commander in July, asking for a meeting with his own lawyers, but the force initially refused to meet him if he had legal representatives.
He intended to present two legal arguments to the Met, one about religious freedom under Article 9, and another about section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986, which gives the police the authority to impose conditions on protests.
He told the JC that he felt the police was not penalising protesters for violating the conditions set on the marches, which dictate that activists should keep to a specific route. “So, if the route starts halfway down Park Lane, it goes off towards Piccadilly, and you start screaming and shouting at Marble Arch station, it’s an arrestable offence. And why the police weren’t enforcing those real violations is what we were really upset about.”
He said that the form-up location on Park Lane should be banned, because obviously activists will congregate at Marble Arch station, leading to collisions between protesters and congregants. Instead, the march should be moved to a Sunday, or another part of London, or even just near to Green Park station.
On another march on August 3, anti-Israel protesters set up stalls around Marble Arch station, outside of the designated route, meaning congregants could not escape the marchers while travelling to shul.
Rabbi Epstein was one of the rabbis of other central London synagogues who signed a private letter addressed to Matt Twist, the assistant commissioner of the Met, in September as a “desperate plea for assistance”. He had a productive meeting with Twist afterwards and subsequently invited him for Yom Kippur services at the shul, but little has changed since the talks.
He had a long phone call with the force in November, who promised him that “we have done everything we need to ensure your safety”, but a march on the 30th of that month showed that nothing had changed. Hundreds of people got off the bus at the southern side of Marble Arch roundabout and began marching with speakers to the start-location, disrupting congregants on their way to shul.
He said the Met had “ample time” to not sanction the forthcoming march on January 18, which will begin outside Portland Place.
Speaking to the JC, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said: “This is a critical moment for the Metropolitan Police to demonstrate their commitment to protecting everyone, and not just those with the loudest voices.
“Our Jewish community is entitled to a clear assurance that the routes of pro-Palestinian marches will be kept at a safe distance from nearby synagogues. There is overwhelming evidence that synagogues have been affected by these marches in the past, and that they will be again unless the routes are changed.”
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the Met has failed to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe (Getty)
Lord Leigh, who attends Westminster Synagogue, said pro-Palestine activists recently stood chanting “From the river to the sea” for seven minutes outside the shul, leading to it cancel its “Shabbat Lunch and Learn”.
“We had to have a cordon of police protection. In my opinion this cannot be right,” he said.
Jeremy Dein, a barrister specialising in criminal law, said: “It is difficult to see how those who genuinely wish to protest peacefully would in turn desire to disrupt the Jewish Sabbath by marching in the vicinity of synagogues on a Saturday. Such behaviour is manifestly intimidating and provocative. Stubborn refusal to desist should be met by police intervention.”
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies told the JC: “We are actively engaging with both the police and the government on this issue, and continue to make the point that the two of the seven routes through the centre of London pass in close proximity to synagogues and should not be used – and certainly not during service times.
“One significant obstruction is that currently every single anti-Israel march through the centre of London is treated as an entirely new event, rather than as they should be – a cumulative series of rallies organised by the same groups, with the same disruptive aims. We will be working with government and police to seek to strengthen provisions around cumulative impact going forward.”
Community Security Trust chief executive Mark Gardner said: “We have repeatedly stated that these protests should be kept away from synagogues, especially on the Sabbath. Their chutzpah is unmatched, exploiting freedoms that they deny to others. Above all, they hate anyone suspected of backing Israel.”
Protesters gather to march in support of Gaza on March 9, 2024 in London. (Getty Images)
Speaking to the JC, the Jewish Leadership Council said it was calling on the Met to move the start location on January 18, “ensuring the freedom to protest does not infringe on the rights of the Jewish community”.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “We know the cumulative impact of more than a year of regular protest on London’s Jewish communities has been significant.
“Over the last year we’ve listened to the concerns of our communities and as a result we have been able to use our powers more extensively than ever before to impose conditions on planned protest.
“The Met has not yet finalised the policing plan for a PSC event on Saturday, January 18. No route has been agreed as we are working to address concerns raised by the Jewish community.
“We are constantly working to balance the rights of the public to go about their lives without serious disruption and the right to lawful demonstration. When we have heard from all those potentially impacted by the march on January 18, and explored options with the PSC, we will announce any new conditions.”
