Giant demonstration in support of Palestine in London

by Hannah McKay and Natalie Thomas

LONDON (Reuters) – More than 300,000 people, according to police – 800,000 according to organizers – marched peacefully in London on Saturday to demand a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and support the creation of a Palestinian state, while violence broke out between far-right counter-protesters and the police.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and in favor of a cessation of hostilities also took place in Paris and Brussels, bringing together more than 16,000 people in the French capital and some 21,000 in the Belgian capital, according to the authorities.

In London, the Metropolitan Police said they were attacked by around 150 masked and black-clad counter-protesters, who threw various projectiles and fireworks at officers.

At least 126 people were arrested, the majority of them activists from the English Defense League, a far-right and Islamophobic organization, who demonstrated “extraordinary and very worrying” violence, said Deputy Commissioner Matt Twist.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned this violence from the far right as well as the excesses of “Hamas sympathizers” who “chanted anti-Semitic slogans and brandished pro-Hamas signs” during the “National March for Palestine”.

Rishi Sunak had previously deemed it “disrespectful” to march in support of Palestine on November 11, the day Britain commemorates its dead from the First World War, and the government had tried unsuccessfully to ban this demonstration, the most spectacular since the start of the war in Gaza a little over a month ago.

As they gathered at the start of the march, pro-Palestinian demonstrators could be heard chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a rallying cry that many Jews view as anti-Semitic and a call to the eradication of Israel.

CLASHES WITH THE EXTREME RIGHT

The scuffles between police and far-right activists took place near the Cenotaph war memorial earlier on Saturday, where some of the counter-protesters chanted “we want our country back”.

Members of far-right groups then threw bottles at police in another incident in Chinatown, about a kilometer north of the war memorial, according to police.

Police said nearly 2,000 officers were mobilized to maintain order and an unprecedented 24-hour police presence had been in place at the Cenotaph since Thursday.

Although previous marches organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have been generally peaceful, before Saturday there had been more than 100 arrests for offenses including supporting Hamas – which is banned in Great Britain. -Brittany as a terrorist organization – or the possession of signs with offensive slogans.

Since the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, Western governments and many citizens have expressed support and sympathy for Israel. But the Israeli military response has also sparked anger, with weekly protests in London demanding a ceasefire.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, responsible for policing, sparked controversy by calling the protesters “hate marchers”, and Rishi Sunak came under pressure from his own camp to he fired her after she accused the police of using double standards in their treatment of “pro-Palestinian crowds”.

On Saturday, Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf called for his resignation, accusing him of empowering far-right protesters. “She spent her week fanning the flames of division,” he said on X.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Hannah McKay, Hollie Adams, Ben Makori, Will Russell and Natalie Thomas, additional reporting by Sarah Young, French version by Benjamin Mallet and Tangi Salaün)