Met Police faces further pressure over Palestine demo as 29 civil society groups weigh in

A coalition of pro-Palestine organisations and activists has written to London’s police chief Mark Rowley. They are demanding urgent answers from the Met Police over the draconian policing of the national demonstration for Palestine on 18 January.

Met Police: yet more pressure is building on them

Police made a total of 77 arrests at the demonstration in an unprecedented show of force. This has raised grave concerns about abuse of process and the freedom to protest. Among the arrests was a man holding a placard calling for Hezbollah to be deproscribed and another who equated the Gaza genocide with the Nazi Holocaust.

The heavy handed tactics followed the imposition of restrictions on the originally agreed route of the march. Demonstrators had planned to march to the BBC headquarters. However, the Met Police then withdrew its permission. This was because of alleged concerns for the safety of Jewish people attending a synagogue some 400 yards from the confirmed route.

The 29 groups say this is inexplicable. That is because prayer and related activities are normally concluded well before mid-day.

More significantly, there have been no recorded incidents of attacks on any synagogue close to the route of previous national Palestine demonstrations in London. Moreover, the Met Police’s own statistics show a very low level of arrests associated with previous demonstrations.

At the protest in Whitehall, the police applied unnecessary and arbitrary measures. This included blocking access to tens of thousands who were trying to reach the previously agreed location for the speakers’ stage.

The letter notes:

The shock tactic used of arresting demonstrators for actions that clearly do not cross the criminal threshold appears to be designed to intimidate demonstrators and restrict the right to lawful protest

Full disclosure needed

The signatories include Islamic Human Rights Commission, Jewish Voice For Labour, Spinwatch, and Black Lives Matter Coalition. They have demanded that the Met Police disclose details of the operational instructions and procedures in place at the demonstration. This includes whether or not representations were made by Zionist groups.

They are also demanding to know what directives, if any, were given by the home secretary Yvette Cooper and the Mayor of London to the Met Police.

In comments made by Rowley the day after the protest at an event organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, he said “sharper and stronger conditions” had been imposed on the demonstration in response to concerns about its impact on Jewish communities.

The Board of Deputies is an avowedly Zionist pro-Israel organisation. It is a vocal opponent of pro-Palestine demonstrations.

The letter goes on to say:

To prioritise its partisan concerns about criticism of Israel over the rights and freedoms of peaceful demonstrators, including many anti-Zionist Jewish organisations, is a troubling departure from impartial policing.

The Met Police are a disgrace

The letter adds to growing pressure on the Met Police over its handling of the pro-Palestine protest. Last week trade union leaders became the latest group to write Yvette Cooper, demanding an independent inquiry into “repressive and heavy-handed policing”.

Their letter followed others by legal experts, MPs and peers, trade unions, and the British Palestinian Committee making the same demand and also calling for a review of the new legislation limiting protest, brought in by the Conservative government.

The letter and signatories can be viewed here.

Featured image via the Canary