Four arrests during pro-Palestine march in central London
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters marched from Park Lane to Downing Street, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Four arrests have been made during a pro-Palestine march in central London.
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters marched from Park Lane to Downing Street on Saturday afternoon, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The Metropolitan Police said one arrest was made for directing a Nazi salute towards a counter-protester and a second was made for a placard suspected of supporting a proscribed organisation.
Two further arrests were made for having an offensive placard.
Popular placards and slogans used during the march included: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “Free, free Palestine” and “In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”.
The crowd waved countless Palestine flags as they marched, and a long piece of bright red cloth measuring many metres and resembling a river was carried down the middle of the march.
A counter-protest known as “Enough is Enough” also took place at Piccadilly Circus, with protesters waving Israeli flags, holding placards of Israeli hostages and a large banner which read “Rape is not resistance.”
A group of Holocaust survivors sat at the side of the protest with placards in support of the Palestinian protesters reading: “Holocaust survivor descendants against Gaza genocide.”
One member of the protest thanked the group as they walked past.
At the end of the march, various speakers, including former Labour and now Independent MP Apsana Begum and the chair of Young Labour, Jess Barnard, gave speeches from a stage outside Parliament at the end of the march.
Opening the speeches, Ms Begum said: “For ourselves, for each other, for our diverse communities across the UK and for the men, women and children of Gaza and all those facing oppression all around the world, solidarity.”
Ms Barnard said: “Starmer we don’t want excuses, we don’t want delay, we don’t want you to say you’re different from the Tories, we want you to smash the Tory legacy of complicity in Israeli war crimes. We want action. No more delay, no more excuses.”