A new request for a truce in the Gaza War was issued by supporters of the Palestinian cause, and some 300,000 people marched through the British capital on Saturday.
Since the “National March for Palestine” was planned on Armistice Day, Britain’s yearly memorial day for its war dead, authorities had anticipated unrest. There were reports of several arrests.
Following a two-minute silence at central London’s Cenotaph war memorial, the march began.
According to a police spokesman, the anticipated number of participants was 300,000.
Protesters waved black, red, white and green Palestinian flags and held aloft placards proclaiming “Stop Bombing Gaza”.
There have been nearly weekly rallies in London since the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and 239 people taken hostage, according to Israel.
The Israeli air and ground military campaign in response has left over 11,000 people in Gaza dead, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Shouts of “free Palestine”, “ceasefire now” and “Israel is a terror state” rang out from the London protest.
“Forget the political stance, forget everything else, you can’t stand around while people are getting killed,” Shiraz Bobra, 41, who travelled from Leicester, central England, told AFP. He added that he would come every week until a ceasefire was enforced.
Gavin Searle, a 58-year-old television director from Hastings in south England, said he had come “to show solidarity with the Palestinians when there’s a massive injustice taking place.”
Roman Catholic priest Father John McGowan added: “I feel for the Palestinians because their land is occupied and their occupiers can be cruel” and said he hoped for a two-state solution. Scuffles
London police have made nearly 100 arrests at previous pro-Palestinian marches, including for supporting Hamas, which is considered a “terrorist” group in the UK.
Amidst the public order fears, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a late plea for calm late on Friday, calling for protesters to act “respectfully and peacefully”.
In order to guarantee that the march would not pass any significant memorials, the organizers rerouted it from Hyde Park to the US Embassy in south London.
The most important memorials are surrounded by metal barriers, and police have established an exclusion zone that they can use to detain protesters who attempt to enter.
In addition to numerous ceremonies performed across the nation, thousands of people wearing red poppies, the symbol of memory, stood with their heads bowed at The Cenotaph on Whitehall for a solemn ceremony of meditation.
Little skirmishes erupted close to the memorial as counter-demonstrators attempted to breach police barriers. Many of them were covered in black, and some of them were waving the Union Jack and the St. George’s flag of England.
Afterwards, the Metropolitan Police reported, missiles were fired at police in the neighboring Chinatown neighborhood.
Subsequently, the police said that they had detained 82 counter-protesters for attempting to “break the peace” and that they had “tried to reach the main protest march.”
