Shorouk Express
Pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested in Trafalgar Square on suspicion of breaching protest conditions after demonstrators broke through a police line as they marched from a rally in Whitehall.
Saturday’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) protest was adjusted to be a static rally after police curtailed organisers’ plans for a march past the BBC and near a synagogue.
But thousands of demonstrators, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the party’s former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, marched towards Trafalgar Square from Whitehall after speeches were made at the rally.
Protesters met a line of police officers and eventually broke through, with those who made it to the square later finding themselves being held in one corner.
The Metropolitan Police warned the group to disperse or face arrest, later announcing: “Around 20 to 30 people who breached the conditions are still contained in Trafalgar Square. They are being arrested. Others have already been arrested.”
One masked activist stood on top of a police car waving a Palestine flag.
Members of the public found themselves caught up in the demonstration. One person who asked a police officer why people could not move was told: “Because it’s an illegal march at the moment.”
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The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) criticised the Met’s decision to block the march, calling it “an outrageous assault on democracy, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression”.
“Silencing peaceful protesters who stand against genocide and in solidarity with the oppressed is not only undemocratic but shameful,” the MAB said in a statement.
One of the conditions prevents anyone involved in the protest from entering a specific area around Portland Place.
Protesters held signs that read “Gaza. Stop the massacre” and “Stop arming Israel”, with a large group of people having marched from Trafalgar Square holding a banner that said “Labour, Tories, BBC. You show Russia’s crimes but hide Israel’s. Why?”
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The rally comes after police curtailed organisers’ plans for a march past the BBC and near a synagogue.
The Met denied putting a “ring of steel” around Broadcasting House as the force said officers would be posted nearby after preventing plans by protesters targeting the BBC to gather in Portland Place.
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The force blocked the march from gathering there due to Broadcasting House’s close proximity to a synagogue and the risk the protest could cause “serious disruption” to the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.
The protest was adjusted to be a static rally in Whitehall instead.
Deputy assistant commissioner Ade Adelekan said ahead of the rally that more than 1,100 officers were due to be deployed, with 200 coming from other forces.
He denied that the Met was putting a ring of steel around Broadcasting House, saying he would instead describe it as “a visible presence of officers in and around the BBC/Portland Place area and surrounding streets”.
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On Thursday, senior Conservative MP Bob Blackman said those who defy police orders by deliberately gathering outside a synagogue should face the “full force of the law”.
The PSC described the Met’s conditions as “repressive” and called for the force to lift them.
In a statement, Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed pro-Palestine marches posed a “threat” to synagogues.
A spokesperson said: “It is shameful that the Met has refused to act on that threat all this time and is mustering a show of strength only now that it appears that the war might be ending.
“The least that it can do is see this tokenistic gesture through and finally limit these marches to static protests, as we have been urging for over a year.”
