Charlotte Church and Jeremy Corbyn joined 1000’s of pro-Palestine protesters in London to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, days after a authorities official stated the capital’s streets have grow to be a “no-go zone for Jews”.
Organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the march stretched from Hyde Park Corner to the US Embassy in Nine Elms.
It marked the fifth main demonstration within the capital to this point this 12 months, and the PSC’s tenth since 7 October.
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While marching by means of central London, protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and waved banners demanding a “ceasefire now”.
Singer Charlotte Church, who led a choir in singing “from the river to the sea” final month, insisted that the marches have had “a strong, a peaceful, loving message”.
Ahead of the most recent demonstration, the UK’s counter extremism tsar claimed the protests are turning London right into a “no-go zone for Jews every weekend”.
Speaking to the PA information company, Church stated: “There’s been singing, there’s been drumming, sure, there’s been emotion however, within the majority, that emotion has been love, has been compassion, as a result of that is why we’re all right here.
“We’re all right here as a result of we can not bear what we’re witnessing. We can not bear to see civilians, youngsters, girls slaughtered…
“We’re also showing that we are absolutely not going to tolerate our government being a part of propping up an apartheid regime.”
The struggle began after an assault by proscribed terror group Hamas on southern Israel on 7 October, through which 1,200 individuals had been killed and greater than 240 taken hostage.
Israel retaliated with air strikes and later a floor offensive, and to this point, Hamas-run Gaza well being authorities say almost 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and 1000’s extra our bodies are feared buried underneath rubble.
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The Met Police stated it arrested 5 individuals through the march, together with a girl for holding an offensive placard and two males for chanting offensive slogans.
One man was additionally arrested for assault, and one other underneath the Public Order Act who was seen carrying a defend and carrying a helmet.
Former Labour chief Mr Corbyn, who now sits as an unbiased MP, vowed “there will be as many of them as it takes”.
“It’s all very well for Joe Biden to say they’re going to build a port to deliver aid,” he stated.
“(It would) be far better if they stopped delivering arms to Israel and made sure there was a ceasefire.”
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The protest comes a day after International Women’s Day, and noticed feminine volunteers from Friends of Al-Aqsa be a part of to “highlight the Palestinian genocide as a gendered issue”.
The group stated gender equality “cannot be achieved whilst civilians in Palestine are under continued bombardment”.
‘None of us are scared’
The UK’s counter extremism tsar Robin Simcox wrote in The Daily Telegraph final week {that a} “permissive environment for radicalisation” is creating.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has additionally promised to clamp down in opposition to “extremist forces trying to tear us apart”, and Michael Gove is predicted to set out a brand new definition of extremism within the coming days.
A counter-protest to the pro-Palestine marches was held in Victoria, central London, on Saturday afternoon and organiser Itai Galmudy stated: “Jews are not afraid… we’ve had enough of those anti-Israeli hate marches that are full of inflammatory language towards Jews and Israelis. And we just want to say enough is enough.”
But chatting with Sky News on the demonstration, Gillian Mosley, a Jewish director marching as a part of the Jewish Bloc for Palestine, stated claims the capitol is a “no-go” space are “absurd”.
“Obviously I’m surrounded by Jews,” she stated. “I also live in central London and have lots of Jewish neighbours, and none of us are scared.”
PSC hails ‘unprecedented’ tenth march
Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, stated after the march that it was “unprecedented” to see “this many people marching for this length of time”.
“You’ll see people here come from all walks of life, young and old, many people here with young children,” he stated.
“They see children’s bodies being pulled out of the rubble, they look like that, they say ‘it could be my child, that could be my brother, that could be my sister’.
“‘I need it to cease and I need my authorities to take motion’. That’s why they’re marching.”
Before the march, the Met Police stated the price of policing Gaza-related protests in London had reached over £32 million and had required 35,464 officer shifts and greater than 5,200 officer relaxation days to be cancelled.
While it did not say what number of had been estimated to have attended the march, the power stated greater than 2,300 officers policed 11 main occasions on Saturday and 500 officers from outdoors the Met’s space had been introduced in to help.
Source: information.sky.com”