Politics
We will defy the police, say organisers of Saturday’s Gaza march
Protesters find support from 29 MPs, who are calling on the police to allow the march to wind up near a synagogue
January 15, 2025 12:24
Protesters find support from 29 MPs, who are calling on the police to allow the march to wind up near a synagogue
January 15, 2025 12:24A key organiser of Saturday’s controversial Gaza march has reportedly said he will defy police orders not to take the protest towards the BBC’s Broadcasting House, which is located near a central London synagogue.
According to left-wing website Novara Media, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said his group would go ahead with its planned march from Whitehall to the BBC on Saturday – even if the police disperse the crowd en route.
It comes after Ismail Patel, Chairman of Friends of Al-Aqsa – one of the coalition partners organising the march – pledged to go on the march “if it means me going in the prison”.
In a defiant statement, Patel said: “The British government and the British police, unfortunately as well, now are putting on us that they want to cancel the next national demonstration in London.
"We will make sure that we turn up in our 1000s, in our hundreds of 1000s, and I give you my pledge here, my friends, I will be there, even if they ban us, and if it means me going in the prison, because I think that is worth it for freeing the people of Palestine and freeing humanity.”
The other day he said of the Saturday march that "we will make sure that we turn up in our thousands, in our hundreds of thousands and I give you my pledge here my friends I will be there even if they ban us, even if it means me going in the prison because I think that is worth… pic.twitter.com/mxc0wWYdIS
— Marc Goldberg (@MarcGoldberg111) January 13, 2025
On Wednesday 29 MPs, including 16 from Labour, backed a parliamentary motion calling on the police to drop restrictions on a planned pro-Palestine protest near the synagogue.
The MPs say they are “alarmed by attempts by the Metropolitan Police to prevent an agreed march for Palestine from protesting at the BBC on 18 January 2025” and call “on the government to urge the Metropolitan Police to drop these repressive restrictions and allow the planned protest to take place at the BBC”.
They appear to dismiss the concerns of Jewish communal organisations about the march taking place so close to Central Synagogue at Portland Place, a short walk away from the BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters.
The MPs say they rejected “the Metropolitan Police’s claim the march could cause disruption to a nearby synagogue noting that the nearest synagogue to the BBC is not even on the march route”.
Parliamentarians additionally claimed that “the Metropolitan Police themselves have acknowledged that there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue attached to any of the previous marches for Palestine, and that thousands of Jewish people have been joining the protests, many of them part of an organised Jewish bloc”.
By contrast, the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of Deputies and the Community Security Trust released a joint statement on Tuesday in support of the Met’s position.
“This Saturday’s National March for Palestine must not take place in the vicinity of BBC given its proximity to a synagogue and the impact on worshippers,” they said. "We support the right to peaceful protest and are not asking for this march to be banned.
"However, we support the Metropolitan Police in imposing conditions to protect those who are attending Central London synagogues. Other routes and days are available. This march must not be allowed in the vicinity of a synagogue at any time on Saturday.”
Instead, the MPs’ motion argues that “Holocaust survivors and their descendants, lawyers, journalists and prominent cultural figures as well as over 700 members of the British Jewish community have spoken out in support of the right to protest”. These include Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC, author Gillian Slovo and actress Miriam Margolyes.
Among the Labour signatories to the motion are Diane Abbott, the veteran left-wing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, a seat with a considerable number of Jewish voters; Ian Lavery, who served as Labour Party chair under Jeremy Corbyn; and Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent East, who is rumoured to be hoping to succeed Sadiq Khan as Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London.
Other signatories include former Labour leader and Independent MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, who served as Corbyn’s shadow chancellor and is currently suspended by Labour for voting against the government and four independent MPs elected on a pro-Gaza platform at last year’s general election.
On Monday, the PSC announced that it planned to reverse their original route and gather in Whitehall and march to the BBC, rather than gather near the shul.
However, the Met said that new route was “not one we have agreed and it would breach the conditions that have been imposed under the Public Order Act”.
They added: “We recognise why the organisers wish to protest at the BBC and we have offered to work with them in considering alternative days of the week that wouldn't result in disruption to Shabbat services.”