The Metropolitan police have made fifteen arrests so far as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters descend on central London, with one banner poking fun at the ‘silly sausage’ Sir Keir Starmer.
The police force said a ‘significant’ operation was in place across the capital – with multiple arrests happening just minutes after the march officially set off.
Activists convened in Bedford Square this morning for the planned march from Russell Square to Whitehall ahead of events marking the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The droves of protesters waved their flags and banners, with one marcher taking a swipe at the Prime Minister with a sign that read ‘Starmer is a silly sausage’ – referencing an awkward mishap during his speech about Gaza hostages.
At the Labour Party conference last week, he seemingly fumbled his words when calling for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza and the ‘return of the sausages’ when discussing the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Met Police confirmed that one man had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, after he tried to get past officers who had formed a cordon to stop any groups breaking away from the main protest.
A second man was arrested in relation to the same incident and also on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
Shortly before 2.30pm, Met Police said another three people had been arrested after breaking away from the main protest and were intercepted trying to approach behind the counter protest at Aldwych.
In total, three people have been arrested for assaulting an emergency worker, one for supporting a proscribed organisation and another three for assault.
Seven have been taken into custody for public order offences – three of which were racially aggravated according to the police force.
Another individual was also arrested for breaching the conditions of the Public Order Act.
In a recent update, the Met Police have said they are aware of signs and placards with messages of support of Hezbollah.
The force has said they are looking to find those who used the placards and will take action in the coming days.
Their statement, which was published on X (fomerly Twitter) read: ‘We’re aware of posts showing people holding placards with messages of support for Hezbollah.
‘The images have been passed to officers, including those monitoring our cameras. The crowds today are significant in size and density.
‘What is easy to spot when walking among the crowd with a mobile phone is not always easy for officers to see from the edge of the crowd.
‘We are working to locate those involved. Action will be taken when we do, whether that is today or in the coming days.
‘We would urge those who see these incidents and take photos of them to also tell officers nearby so we can intervene immediately.’
Some signs that has seen on social media, were inscribed with inflammatory messages such as ‘Hezbollah are not terrorists’, whilst others read: ‘I love Hezbollah’.
According to protest organisers, the plan is to ‘target’ companies and institutions they say are ‘complicit in Israel’s crimes’, including Barclays Bank and the British Museum.
The demonstrators blocked Tottenham Court Road by gathering outside a Barclays bank just after midday, with a sign held near the entrance reading: ‘Shame on those who looked away from the sadistic genocide of mainly children in Gaza and the West Bank.’
A short while later they blocked Gower Street near the British Museum and police appeared to form a line to prevent the group meeting up with another group of activists in Russell Square.
They were heard chanting: ‘Yemen, Yemen make us proud. Turn another ship around’, and: ‘British Museum. Paint it red. Over 100,000 dead’.
In Bedford Square, protesters held Lebanese and Iranian flags and banners stating ‘we do not stand with genocide’ and ‘Zionism is racism’, with many chanting ‘free, free Palestine’.
A protest leader told activists: ‘We don’t engage the police and don’t engage counter-protesters. We definitely don’t talk to the blue bibs.
‘We do not talk or interact with the police. If I am arrested, no comment. If I am arrested, no caution. If I am arrested, no duty solicitor.
‘We are safer when we are together. Only we can keep each other safe.’
This was followed by chants of: ‘When Palestine is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back. When Lebanon is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back.’
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are reportedly going to be walk through the centre of Edinburgh on this afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon, a memorial event will be held in Hyde Park, organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council and other groups.
The force said it was unaware of any significant public events taking place on Monday, the anniversary of the attacks.
Commander Lou Puddefoot, who is leading the operation, said the force had policed previous protests ‘without fear or favour’.
‘Protests and related events have become a feature of the 12 months since the appalling terrorist attacks in Israel almost a year ago,’ she said.
‘We have policed them without fear or favour, ensuring that lawful protest has been allowed to take place but intervening where the line has been crossed into criminality.
‘We recognise that as we go into this weekend, so close to the anniversary of October 7, emotions will be heightened and fears about safety and security understandably increased.
‘Officers have been in regular contact with event organisers. We have detailed plans in place to ensure the safety of those attending and to be able to respond to any incidents or offences.
‘We are also working closely with key partners in communities to provide advice, reassurance and a visible presence particularly in those areas where we know fears are heightened.
‘I would urge anyone who sees or hears something suspicious, no matter how small, to tell us. Call 101, or 999 in an emergency. If you are at an event and there are officers there, please raise your concerns with them. They are there to help, to reassure and to keep you safe.’
Among those in attendance today was former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf.
Asked by Sky News if his participation today could be seen as anti-Israeli or ‘maybe anti-Semitic’, he said: ‘I utterly reject that charge.
‘It cheapens anti-Semitism by saying criticism of the Netanyahu government is somehow anti-Semitism, when there are Israelis who march in Tel Aviv – and there are hundreds of thousands who are against the massacre taking place in Gaza.
‘The attacks in Lebanon are being condemned by the United Nations – you’re not trying to tell me the United Nations is anti-Semitic?’
He added that the people participating today are ‘pro-humanity’.
Elsewhere, a protest leader was heard telling activists: ‘We don’t engage the police and don’t engage counter-protesters. We definitely don’t talk to the blue bibs.
‘We do not talk or interact with the police. If I am arrested, no comment. If I am arrested, no caution. If I am arrested, no duty solicitor.
‘We are safer when we are together. Only we can keep each other safe.’
This was followed by chants of: ‘When Palestine is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back.
‘When Lebanon is under attack. What do we do? Stand up. Fight back.’
A counter-protest, organised by Stop The Hate, gathered at the junction of the Strand and Trafalgar Square, but police said this was away from the pre-agreed counter protest area and too close to the main protest.
Met Police said it would be moving the protest back onto Trafalgar Square to prevent disorder.
A ‘significant’ policing operation is in place across London in response to planned protest and memorial events, the Metropolitan Police said.
The latest marches come just hours after a leading organiser declared there would be an ‘escalation’ if Israel continues to be granted ‘impunity’.
Ben Jamal, 61, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) added the marches were a necessary mechanism for ‘ending tyranny and oppression’, ahead of today’s protest in London, which marks the 20th national March for Palestine.
The PSC is a UK advocacy group that has been at the helm of organising pro-Palestine marches across the UK since October 14 2023, a week to the day after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel.
Other organisations involved in the marches include Stop the War, Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain.
Of today’s planned protest, Mr Jamal said: ‘We didn’t anticipate marching for a year – we’re in a pattern of marching every three to four weeks, but we keep that under review and we’re conscious in the current circumstances that may need to adjust.
‘We have been saying as a movement from very early on, if you continue to grant Israel impunity, this will escalate – it will start to attack its neighbours.
‘Where will that take us? Probably that will bring more people to the streets who may have a deep concern about Palestinian rights, but will say actually now I see the risk of a major world war.
‘We need to be out on the streets in even bigger numbers to stop this carnage and stop Britain being drawn into it, because that’s the other risk – we’re already militarily engaged.’
He said between 300,000 to 500,000 attended the marches between October and January, with around 80,000 to 100,000 at the previous four – but he anticipates that number to rise for Saturday’s march.
On November 11 2023 – Armistice Day – shortly after then-home secretary Suella Braverman labelled the protests as ‘hate marches’, there were significantly more in attendance.
‘We estimated there were at least a million people marching that day,’ he said.
‘That made it one of the biggest political demonstrations in British political history.’
Mr Jamal added that protesters come from a wide demographic, including ‘a lot of young people, a lot of people with babies and children in pushchairs and quite a few people who are retired and have cared about this issue for a very, very long time.’
He said at every demonstration there has been an organised Jewish Bloc for any members of the Jewish community who wish to attend.
The protest organiser said the protests were an effective way to ‘create a lever of pressure’.
He said: ‘Palestinians an the moment, particularly in Gaza, but across all of historic Palestine I would say, feel abandoned by the international community in the sense of 40,000 of (them) have been killed in Gaza and western powers do not act, but when we march, (they) know it’s noticed.
‘I get messages from comrades in Palestine saying we see you and that’s important in terms of people’s ability to continue to resist, to continue to feel there is a prospect of hope.
‘The second purpose is it’s a way of galvanising people and I’ve been conscious in the past 11 months of the number of times people have come up to me… who say to me, with all the horror I see and the despair of our complicity in this, this is the place where there’s some sense of home and community.
‘The third thing is you’re trying to create a lever of pressure, they create a political pressure point.’
Mr Jamal no longer has any family members who live in Gaza, but said he has been in contact with British-Palestinians and invited them to speak to MPs.
‘One had over 40 members of their family killed and they came to give testimony to that and I don’t know how they were surviving,’ he said.
He added that he has a relative currently in Lebanon.
‘He’s not in a place in Beirut where he’s at the epicentre, but said to me it’s getting closer and closer,’ he said.
‘He’s gone up into the hills and is looking for how he gets out.’
Over the last year, Mr Jamal has called for the British government to impose sanctions and boycotts against Israel.
‘I don’t know any other mechanism for ending tyranny and oppression than the resistance of the oppressed people and pressure on the oppressor coming externally,’ he said.
‘There is no dynamic inside Israeli society that’s going to change this.’
Saturday’s protest march comes as a Jewish charity said it was mounting its ‘largest ever’ security operation in conjunction with police amid fears that Iranian-funded terror groups will target British Jews on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s National Security Council warned that ‘efforts to carry out attacks against Israeli/Jewish targets abroad are expected to intensify’ around October 7 — a date which also coincides with four of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar.
It comes amid record rates of anti-Semitism across Britain including incidents of physical assault, desecration to property and online abuse.
This week, the Community Security Trust issued an extensive security notice to British Jews warning of potential revenge attacks against the community following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.
They warned that ‘Hezbollah and Iran have a long record of terrorist attacks against Diaspora Jewish communities’ and have urged congregations to keep synagogue ‘gates and doors closed’ and that people ‘disperse quickly’ once religious services have finished.
Eight people were arrested in September when pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London in protest to the ongoing Israel and Hamas conflict.