Palestine protesters have declared their intention to bring London to a halt on Remembrance Day amid London rallies that saw calls for an intifada and open support for Hamas terror.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators congregated in Trafalgar square, occupied Charing Cross station and clashed with riot police in Whitehall on the fourth weekend of anti-Israel protests.
Dozens of marchers were arrested for offences including inciting racial hatred, breaching the Terrorism Act, and assaulting police officers.
One man leading a call and response chant to hundreds at a Charing Cross sit in protest announced: "We need to escalate, today we have taken Charing Cross, next week we take Charing Cross, we take Victoria, we take Waterloo, we do so at 3pm."
Protesters across London wielded placards showing the Star of David being thrown into a bin, quoting Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and insisting, "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
In the newly established Republic of Charing Cross the leader announces the plan for next week:
— Harry's Place (@hurryupharry) November 4, 2023
"We need to escalate, today we have taken Charing Cross, next week we take Charing Cross, we take Victoria, we take Waterloo, we do so at 15:00" pic.twitter.com/YYb6ykd9bh
One man was seen flying the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terror group that took part in the October 7 attack in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were slaughtered.
A video taken in a London tube carriage showed people chanting, “there is only one solution — intifada, revolution” and “smash the Zionist settler state”.
In Trafalgar square, one poster held aloft showed a bulldozer flying a Palestinian flag as it destroyed a chain link fence in an apparent endorsement of the October 7 terror attack.
A banner depicting an Israeli flag and swastika read: "If I don’t steal it somebody else is going to steal it — Israeli proverb."
london palestine protest
'By any means necessary': London protesters call for resistance against Israel (Photo: Danny Ben David)
Speaking outside a branch of Barclays, a demonstrator was filmed declaring: "We saw what the resistance can do when they take the fight and their self determination in their own hands.
"This has been the biggest blow to Zionism that we've seen in our lifetimes. We know what we think about it, you know what the so-called Labour progressives think about it? They condemned it as terrorism.
"They have called the Palestinians, the colonised, the oppressed, terrorists."
In Charing Cross station meanwhile, protesters chanted, "there is only one state, Palestine '48," while the Edgware Road saw a convoy of cars driving slowly as they flew Palestinian flags.
Others accused the Israeli government of committing genocide, with protesters in Trafalgar Square holding a banner reading "Israel is a terror state" in front of effigies of dead babies.
Karen Findlay, Commander for the Metropolitan Police, said: "It is disappointing that various splinter groups were again responsible for behaviour which has no place in London and we are determined to deal with this robustly."
A child leading the anti-Israel "from the river to the sea" chant, for which he receives applause from nearby protesters pic.twitter.com/ZCwz9uG371
— Daniel Ben-David (@DannyBenDavid) November 5, 2023
Shortly before 7pm, Metropolitan police officers dispersed the crowd in Trafalger square after fireworks were launched.
Riot police also charged a group of people at the top of Whitehall, where bottles were thrown at officers and a road blocked by police vans.
The police estimate that around 30,000 people took place in the protests in total.
In an interview with Sky News, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “What we’ve seen in the last few weeks is tens of thousands of people taking to the streets of Britain chanting jihad, calling for the erasure of Israel and behaving in many instances in a flagrantly antisemitic manner.
"To me, those are incredibly offensive and it’s utterly odious behaviour."
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'Israel is the gas lighter of the world': demonstrators attack the Jewish state in Trafalger square (Photo: Danny Ben David)
Discussing an incident in which poppy sellers became surrounded by Palestine protesters, Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, said: “The saddest thing my generation of veterans ever say to me is that they struggle to recognise the country they wore the uniform for.
"This is not it. We mustn’t allow it to become like this."
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