More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza are due to take place across the UK this weekend, but there will be no large-scale national march in London, according to organisers.
Organisers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets have planned smaller action in villages, towns and cities rather than holding a national march in the capital this Saturday, citing the challenges of coordinating weekly national protests and growing support across the country. The next large national march in central London would be held on 25 November, they said.
“This Saturday, ordinary people across the UK will come out again to show the vast majority of them support a ceasefire,” said Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a lead organiser of the march.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend vigils, protests, petitions, fundraisers and marches across London boroughs and cities including Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool and elsewhere on Saturday, according to organisers.
Jamal said: “They will show their solidarity with Palestinians who are suffering unimaginable harm. They will also demand the root causes are not forgotten: Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestinian territories and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
The UK’s largest protest moment in recent years began after a surprise cross-border attack in Israel on 7 October in which Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 200 hostages. Since then, retaliatory attacks have killed more than 11,000 civilians in Gaza, two-thirds of them women and children, and resulted in 1.5 million fleeing their homes, according to Hamas-run health authorities.
The latest action comes a week after hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London without major incident. The prime minister and former home secretary had insisted the march should be banned and claimed police bias that officers say was a factor in far-right counter-protesters clashing with police ahead of an Armistice Day service.
On Wednesday the Labour party was hit by a major rebellion calling for an immediate ceasefire, as the government and Keir Starmer maintained the position of supporting longer humanitarian pauses in the conflict. Several Labour MPs have said they are under huge pressure from party members and constituents to take a firmer stance against the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The support given to Israel by UK political leaders was “shameful and unjustifiable”, said Jamal. “We demand justice for the Palestinian people – their right to self-determination and to live in freedom, safety, and with full human rights,” he said.
The national march, organised by PSC alongside Stop the War, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa and others, will resume in London on 25 November, with organisers saying they will continue until there is a ceasefire.
“I think the conversation is penetrating areas of the country and different demographics in a way that we haven’t seen before,” said Hassan Kassem, a PSC communications officer in Kent.
Earlier this month, nearly 150 people had turned out in a show of solidarity for Palestinians in Tunbridge Wells at the first national day of action, said Kassem. He anticipates a similar turnout this weekend at their stall outside Barclays bank, which PSC says holds more than £1bn in shares, and provides more than £3bn in loans to companies supplying military arms and technology to Israel.
“This weekend, it’s awareness around the role that multinational corporations can play in facilitating Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians,” he said.
“All this activity is helping to reach people in a new and different way, and I think a lot more people are becoming more aware of the problem and also what needs to be done.”
A spokesperson for Barclays said: “Barclays is committed to respecting human rights as defined by the international bill of human rights and takes account of other internationally accepted human rights standards and frameworks.
“Our approach is governed by our statements and policy positions, including those on defence and security. We conduct enhanced due diligence as appropriate on clients in the defence and security sector.”
