An appeal has been launched to find several people who were pictured during Saturday’s pro-Palestine march with placards that may be considered “hateful”.
Officers posted photos of them, asking the public to help bring them forward “in relation to hate crime”.
The pictures included a woman holding a poster with a Swastika inside the Star of David, while another showed two people in what has been described as Hamas-style headbands.
An estimated 300,000 people descended on the capital to demand a ceasefire in Gaza on Armistice Day.
The Metropolitan Police said the pro-Palestine march went ahead peacefully for the most part.
They had to intercept a “breakaway group” of 150 at Grosvenor Place in the evening, where some were wearing face coverings and setting off fireworks. Several arrests were made after a few of the fireworks “struck officers in the face”.
Following today's pro-Palestinian demonstration we're looking to identifying individuals in the thread below.
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) November 11, 2023
Anyone who can help us identify this person should call 101, giving reference 1235186/23.
Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111 pic.twitter.com/7JzXWlF6gi
A total of 145 arrests were made throughout the day, more than 90 of which were counter-protesters.
Some were described as “already intoxicated, aggressive and clearly looking for confrontation” by the Met’s Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist.
He went on to say: “While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march did not see the sort of physical violence carried out by the right-wing, we know that for London’s Jewish communities whose fears and concerns we absolutely recognise, the impact of hate crime and in particular anti-Semitic offences is just as significant.
“There were also a number of serious offences identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organisations during the protest that we are actively investigating.
“Locating and intercepting suspects in a crowd of the size we saw today will always be challenging, but we were further limited in our ability to do so due to the number of officers we had to deploy, from early in the day, in response to violence from the right-wing groups in central London.”
