More than 400 people were arrested at a pro-Palestine protest in central London today, held in defiance of calls to cancel the demonstration following the terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester.
Elderly people, relatives of Holocaust survivors, and those with disabilities were among the 492 arrested in Trafalgar Square, as protesters voiced their support for banned terror group Palestine Action.
“The final arrest total for today’s public order policing operation in central London is 492. 488 of the arrests were for supporting a proscribed organisation,” Met Police said.
“The remainder were for being drunk and disorderly, common assault, a public order offence and being wanted for an unrelated matter. The youngest person arrested was 18, the oldest was 89.
“297 remain in custody, the rest have been bailed.”
Hundreds of protesters sat outside holding placards which read ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’, as police moved through the crowds making arrests. Six people were detained for unfurling a banner backing the proscribed group on Westminster Bridge.
It comes after two Jewish people were killed and three left in a serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack outside a synagogue in Manchester on Thursday. The victims were named as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66.
The suspect, Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police at the scene.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had urged protesters to "respect the grief of British Jews", while Jewish figures have called the action "phenomenally tone deaf" following Thursday's killing of two people in the terror attack.
But the demonstration went ahead despite calls for protests to be postponed.
Elizabeth Morley, 79, who lives in Wales, was arrested at the protest. This marks the third time she’s been detained in support of Palestine.
She told The Standard: “I was accosted on the street of London by a man walking towards me, pointing at my badge, and he said, ‘How dare you?’ and I said, ‘Pardon?’
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“‘After what happened in Manchester, how dare you?’
“And it’s unbelievable—he was associating that badge with a terrorist attack in Manchester, at a synagogue. What’s that got to do with it? What’s Palestine got to do with some idiot who attacked people in Manchester?
“He didn’t give me a chance to tell him I’m the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. I’m Jewish.”
“Never again means never again for everybody,” she added.
Organisers Defend Our Juries said more than a thousand people had gathered at the central London landmark to hold a mass, silent vigil protesting the proscription while the names of Palestinian children killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict were read out.
A vicar, who had been sitting with her eyes closed and holding a poster saying "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action", was among those arrested and carried out by police.
Some people in the crowd called police "shameful" and one said to officers "thanks for protecting us" as the woman was taken away.
Two elderly men were also seen being carried by each limb to the south-west side of the square, where officers and police vehicles were waiting to process the arrests.
Amnesty International UK condemned the arrests and said it continued to be “upsetting and shocking” to witness elderly people and those with disabilities “hauled from the streets into police vans”.
Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s Director of Campaigns and Communications, said: “These arrests are in breach of the UK's international human rights obligations and should not be happening.
“Amnesty International has deployed observers to the demonstration today to monitor police conduct and whether the right to protest is upheld. “The UK Government should not be criminalising and demonising these peaceful demonstrators to distract from their failure to take meaningful action to end Israel’s genocide.”
