The Metropolitan police have arrested 77 people after pro-Palestine protestors breached police orders to stay away from the BBC and central London synagogues.

The march, which contained protestors carrying placards emblazoned with swastikas and antisemitic tropes, took place after organisers Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) chose to defy police restrictions on the location of the march. 

Police said the demonstration amounted to the most “significant escalation in criminality” in the nearly 16 months of regular pro-Palestine marches.

Police arrest an anti-Israel protestor (Getty)

Defying a police mandate against the march entering an area covering the BBC’s New Broadcasting House and the nearby Central Synagogue – where congregants have been attending services throughout the day – a few hundred of the approximately 5000 demonstrators were stopped by rows of police officers and vehicles.

Police make an arrest after protesters gather on Whitehall (Getty Images)

A large group of demonstrators who forced their way through the line of police were then held by a second blockade at the northwest corner of Trafalgar Square.

A statement from the Met said a “persistent group intent on continuing to breach the conditions tried to leave Trafalgar Square by other routes but were ultimately contained by officers. More than 60 of the group were arrested.”

Commander Adam Slonecki, the Met officer who led the policing operation, said: “We have policed more than 20 national protests organised by the PSC since October 2023.

"This is the highest number of arrests we have seen, in response to the most significant escalation in criminality.

“We could not have been clearer about the conditions put in place.”

He added, “Our relationship with protest organisers has to be based on trust and good faith. If they say they will act responsibly and lawfully we need to be able to know those are genuine assurances.

"That is why it is so deeply disappointing to see a deliberate effort, involving organisers of the demonstration, to breach the conditions and attempt to march out of Whitehall.”

Police arrested serial demonstrator Chris Nineham, head steward of the march and vice chair of the Stop The War coalition.

Police officers on Whitehall (Getty)

Demonstrators chanted “The police is IDF” and “Fascist pigs off our streets”.

One man who carried a placard “suggesting support for a proscribed organisation” was arrested, according to police.

At least one protester was arrested after entering the exclusion zone the Met had set up around the Portland Place, where the BBC offices are located, and refused to leave.

Slonecki added: “There were a number of arrests for public order offences, one for displaying a placard that suggested support for Hamas and Hezbollah and another flag for pairing a swastika with the Israeli flag.”

At the start of the march in Whitehall, speeches outside the Cenotaph were given by former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, activist Leanne Mohammed and Ismail Patel, Chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa.

The “ceasefire” march, which was to begin at noon on Saturday and end at 4:30pm, was organised to demand “an end to Israel’s ongoing attacks on Palestinians, a permanent ceasefire, and an end to all arms sales to Israel”, according to Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director Ben Jamal.
But at least one speech called for the “dismantling of the colonialist Zionist entity”.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said during his speech the imminent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was “only the start” and that there would be “many more” Palestinian demonstrations in London to come.

Less than a day before the hostage-ceasefire deal is set to take effect, other chants outside 10 Downing Street included calls for intifada.

Many placards accused the BBC of being controlled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “infested” by “Zionists”, while others said the Labour Party and Prime Minister Keir Starmer were complicit in “genocide”.

Other signs accused Israel of wanting to implement a “greater Israel expansion project” that would see it taking over neighbouring countries.

Today’s march follows weeks of disagreement between police and PSC over the route over the march and disturbances at the nearby synagogue, whose membership pleaded with the Met to intervene. 

Police earlier this week wrote to PSC mandating a new route for the march that would avoid the offices of the BBC and the Central Synagogue. The PSC said that request amounted to “repressive restrictions” and “a grave violation of our right to protest”.