LONDON: Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in central London on Saturday to demand the British government call for a cease-fire after Israel’s military widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Aerial footage showed large crowds setting off on the march organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, with the protest due to end outside the Houses of Parliament after passing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street office.
Echoing Washington’s stance, Sunak’s government has stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid to reach people in Gaza.
Britain has supported Israel’s right to defend itself after an Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas movement that Israel said had killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
“Last Saturday, we had over 300,000 people marching through the streets of London, the largest demonstration in support of the rights of the Palestinian people in British history,” said PSC Director Ben Jamal, adding that “we are marching today in the most horrendous of situations.”
He said “last night, Israel launched a major bombardment and cut off all communications,” calling it an “act of pure barbarism” and it meant that medical services were unable to locate to where they needed to be and families could not connect with each other or connect with the outside world.
“So we are marching today not knowing how many Palestinians are now dead, how many children are now under the rubble,” he added.
“We are marching again to Whitehall to demand of our political leaders that they call for an immediate cease-fire. There is no justification for not calling for a cease-fire unless you accept the argument that Palestinians are not human beings. We do not accept that and we will be loud in our demands today,” Jamal said.
“The superpowers at play are not doing enough at the moment. This is why we’re here: we’re calling for a cease-fire, calling for Palestinian rights, the right to exist, to live, human rights, all our rights,” said protester Camille Revuelta.
“This is not about Hamas. This is about protecting Palestinian lives,” she added.
London police have faced criticism in recent days for not being tougher over slogans shouted by some protesters during another pro-Palestinian march in the capital last week, which drew about 100,000 people. That protest was mostly peaceful with only a handful of arrests.
Many demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” They also held signs that read “Free Palestine” and “Gaza, stop the massacre,” while some protesters let off fireworks and red and green flares.
Dani Nadiri, 36, said Sunak’s call for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting to allow aid into Gaza and hostages to leave was not enough.
“A full cease-fire needs to happen,” the TV producer told AFP, adding: “It’s time now to do something rather than let it escalate any further.”
Noori Butt, from Luton in southern England, said she just wanted the war “to end.”
“It can’t go on like this. The world is dying and I want lasting peace for everybody. That’s the way it should be,” the 38-year-old teacher told AFP.
The demonstrators gathered at a central point by the River Thames at midday, before making their way to the UK parliament in Westminster.
Other rallies took place Saturday in Manchester and Glasgow, Scotland.
Ahead of Saturday’s event, police warned there was no place for hate crime and said 2,000 officers would be on duty across the city. Special restrictions were in place restricting protests around the Israeli Embassy.\
Earlier, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged those taking part in pro-Palestinian protests to be wary of disinformation and manipulation.
When asked by a reporter if there was a risk of Iran or other foreign actors hijacking protests to stoke unrest, Cleverly said: “It is perfectly possible to support the Palestinian people but also to condemn Hamas.”
“But sadly we do see people being manipulated, subjected to disinformation, distortion and sadly, I do think that a minority, a small minority, within those protests have got very much more negative aims.”
(With Reuters and AFP)
