Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets of London on Saturday for a pro-Palestinian march that will take place under strict police surveillance this weekend to commemorate the First World War ceasefire.
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A little more than a month after the deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which then massively bombed the Gaza Strip, demonstrators, who had already been in large numbers in the capital over the past weekends, are calling for a ceasefire.
Organizing this march against the government’s advice became a political crisis. Interior Minister Suella Braverman is now under fire for questioning the neutrality of the police, who refused to ban the demonstration.
AFP
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned London police chief Mark Rowley that he will hold him “responsible” for any riots, particularly if protesters disrupt Armistice Day commemorations planned in the capital at the same time.
“It is thanks to those who fought for this country and for the freedom we value that those who wish to demonstrate can do so, but they must do so in a respectful and peaceful way,” Downing Street said in a statement on Friday evening.
The route of the march, which must begin at 12pm local time (and GMT), carefully avoids the Whitehall area where the main ceremony is due to take place, particularly in the presence of the Prime Minister.
AFP
“Tense and difficult”
Police on Friday reported the use of a massive device that mobilized nearly 2,000 people to ensure the security of both the commemorations and the demonstration.
London police chief of operations Laurence Taylor, who expects more than 100,000 demonstrators, stressed that this weekend would be “particularly tense and difficult”.
In particular, he expects counter-demonstrators, including hooligans, to flock to the site and the risk of confrontations will increase.
A exclusion zone will be planned around the memorial and police will use increased powers to control demonstrators.
It has already arrested almost 200 people, some of whom were suspected of being racially motivated, at previous demonstrations that have been largely peaceful since October 7th.
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Interior Minister Suella Braverman called the protests “hate marches” and said some of the organizers “have ties to terrorist groups, including Hamas.”
The advocate of a very conservative line sparked a flood of criticism after she publicly accused the police of “double standards” in managing the demonstrations, prompting some to call for her to resign from the government.
Downing Street called on march participants to be “aware of the message this could send” and “to be sensitive and aware of the fears and anxieties that many people in the Jewish community and also in the Muslim community have as a result of this Have events.” Events.”
There has been a rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic acts in the UK since the start of the conflict, which claimed thousands of lives.
Two teenagers were charged on Friday with spray-painting “Free Palestine” on a memorial to fallen British soldiers in the town of Rochdale, near Manchester, northern England.
According to a poll by conservative newspaper The Telegraph, 52% of Britons believe the march should have been banned. They make up 72% of conservative voters.