Intimidating Gaza protest saw synagogue attendance ‘drop by a third’

The JC has since revealed that one of the organisers of the march, pro-Palestine activist Teresa Diamond, had previously posted a claim denying official accounts of the Holocaust, praised Hamas "heroes" on October 7, and accused Mossad of being behind 9/11.

Footage shared online of the protest showed one woman wearing Christian garb at the front of the march, carrying a cross. Some activists wore bloodied fabric, which pro-Palestine protesters often use to represent dead children.

One of the main organisers was Chelmsford Action for Palestine, which split from Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) earlier this year.

PSC’s Southend branch had distanced itself from Saturday's march, calling it a “Palestine Action event” that it was not involved in organising.

“Our committee’s view is that it is not constructive to arrange a march in Westcliff on that date,” said Southend PSC ahead of the march, describing it as “an important religious festival for many people including Christians and Jews”.

Speaking to the JC, Padwa said: “There were quite a few people in the community who were so intimidated that they decided to go to their parents’ in London for the weekend, to get away completely.”

Others decided to attend one of the other Orthodox synagogues in the area – like the Westcliff Charedi Synagogue – and ended up having to walk a mile to make Saturday’s two yom tov services.

“Normally – especially if it’s Shabbat and yom tov – I would have expected a cramped, full house,” he said.

Instead, he said no women or young children attended his service, despite his best efforts to reassure the community that there would be a police presence on the day.

Padwa’s synagogue is located on Hamlet Court Road, on the route of Saturday’s march that began at Westcliff Station.

Another Orthodox synagogue in the nearby area is Southend & Westcliff Hebrew Congregation, a ten-minute walk from the march’s start-point.

Police moved the demonstration’s start time from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm to avoid collision with worshippers attending and leaving shul, but this, according to Padwa, was ineffective at protecting the community.

“The police had postponed it to half past two, but as I told the police at the time, the protesters are still going to turn up at half past one.”

He said that the police had insufficient contact with the organisers of the march, so demonstrators turned up at the original start time and were being held at the train station.

Before the demonstration, Padwa had two conversations with the police, urging them to move the start-point of the march away from the Jewish area.

“We were not looking to infringe on anybody’s right to protest,” he said. “But there doesn’t seem to be any logical, legitimate reason to start the protest at Westcliff station, and have it go through a religious Jewish neighbourhood.”

Padwa was frustrated to learn that some of his congregants, and even his family members, were personally told by the police that they shouldn’t walk in certain areas on the day. “The police kept them herded, as if they were the criminals,” he said.

One congregant, who has difficulties walking long distances, was making his way home towards the train station when he was told by the police to walk back up a hill and go a different way to avoid the protestors.

Meanwhile Padwa’s daughter, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, when trying to cross Hamlet Court Road, were stopped by the police and told: “It’s best if you don’t go there, it might not be safe for you.”

His daughter-in-law came back to him “almost in tears”, he said.

She was distressed at some of the protestors’ chants, including calls to “globalise the Intifada”, and accusations about Israelis “killing nurses and babies”. She was also frustrated that the police were permitting the march to occur, while telling her where she could and couldn’t go.

When asked by the JC whether the march represented two-tier policing, Padwa said that may not have been the intention, but it was the effect.

“Nobody in my community went out to agonise the protestors. But just by dint of being Jewish and looking Jewish, the police were afraid there would be a flashpoint,” he said.

“The logical thing would have been to tell the protestors: ‘Why do this right in the heart of the Jewish community?’

“People feel very let down. Why did the police make it a priority for the march to go ahead and then tell us, people who were just lawfully going about their daily business: ‘No, you can’t walk here, because it’s going to antagonise the protestors’?”

He was particularly upset at some of the chants, which he described as “pure hate”, including the phrase: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

“It has been widely explained in the media that the chant is in essence saying: ‘Get rid of the Jews’,” the rabbi said.

A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust (CST) said the march was “a deliberately antagonistic act”.

“People have the choice about when and where to protest and organising a pro-Palestinian march of this nature near to synagogues on the Sabbath is a deliberately antagonistic act that we utterly condemn.”

A flyer advertising the march listed a member of Palestine Action, Anna Letts, as a speaker for the event.

The group has been connected to several high-profile vandalism incidents across the UK, including attacks on multiple Barclays Bank branches and criminal damage at a site owned by Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems in Somerset.

Speaking to the JC, Essex Police said neighbourhood policing teams have been patrolling in Westcliff and speaking to local people about their concerns. The force confirmed there would be an ongoing, visible police presence throughout Southend during the spring and summer months.

Chief Superintendent Waheed Khan said: “We police without fear or favour and I know the march on Saturday has caused concern right across our community.

“We faced a number of challenges in relation to the march and a number of counter-protests and we used our powers to impose conditions to reduce disorder and disruption,” he said, adding that the force was reviewing video footage to see if any offences took place.

“We always work hard to understand the impact of any march or protest on our communities, including local businesses and religious communities and this was what we did ahead of this demonstration and their views were taken into account,” he said. “We have to balance the rights of all when deciding upon policing action, and did so to the best of our ability on the information we had.”

The JC contacted Chelmsford Action for Palestine and Palestine Action.