On October 5, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the association which has been organizing major pro-Palestinian marches in London for a year, once again called for demonstrations in the heart of the British capital to “the end of the intervention in Lebanon”, “the cessation of arms exports to Israel” or the “Liberation of Palestine”. Several tens of thousands of people responded again – Greater London Police made seventeen arrests.
In its endurance and scale, the British mobilization for the Palestinians is unique in Europe. Since the start of the Israeli response to the massacre committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, tens of thousands of people have converged every two or three weeks between Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, in gatherings authorized by the authorities and widely pacifists; some arrests for disturbances of public order or suspicion of anti-Semitic remarks occur occasionally, such as on September 7 – eight people were arrested – or at the beginning of July (arrest of four demonstrators).
“There haven’t been marches of this magnitude since the suffragette movement [pour le droit des femmes, au début du XXe siècle] »assures Ben Jamal, keffiyeh around his neck, the president of PSC. At 61, this son of a Palestinian Anglican pastor comes from a family who had to flee Jerusalem in 1948, when the State of Israel was created, like several hundred thousand people.
Determined protesters
The demonstrations have lost a little intensity in recent months, but those marching – retirees, students, families with children and representatives of the Muslim community – remain determined, brandishing the same signs (“Free Palestine”, “Ceasefire now” – “ceasefire now”) or chanting the slogan “From the river to the sea” (“from the river to the sea”, i.e. between the Jordan and the Mediterranean) -, considered offensive by many Jews, who see it as the eradication of Israel, but authorized by the Metropolitan Police (the police of Greater London) . For Ben Jamal, the demonstrators keep the flame “because of the uniqueness of what is happening in the Middle East, with a genocide taking place under [leurs] eyes “ : “People are demonstrating to express their emotion and to denounce the complicity of our governmentshe assures. They demand an adequate arsenal of sanctions to put pressure on Israel. »
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Source: Lemonde