Met Police under pressure as outcry increases over Palestine BBC protest ban

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Coalition partners are today issuing a statement that reaffirms their determination to lead a protest at BBC headquarters in central London despite the efforts of the Met Police to prevent a March for Palestine which it previously agreed to in November 2024.

March for Palestine: the Met under fire

Over the weekend a flurry of public figures have criticised the decision by the Met to use conditions under the Public Order Act to prevent the protest at the BBC on Portland Place, on the grounds that this would cause disruption to a synagogue which is not on the route of the march and despite the fact that there has not been a single documented case of threat or incident at a synagogue in relation to the national Palestine marches that have taken place over the last 15 months of the Gaza genocide.

Hundreds of political, social and cultural figures have voiced their support for the right to demonstrate in support of Palestine after substantial evidence emerged that the BBC is failing to uphold its own editorial guidelines in the reporting of Israel’s actions – including MPs, trade union leaders, civil society leaders, actors, musicians and artists.

A letter organised by the Jewish bloc which attends in support of every Palestine March has attracted more than 800 signatures by members of the Jewish community calling on the Met to reverse its ban. A group of Holocaust survivors and their descendants have also written a public letter in support of the march.

PSC are calling on all those who support an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as well as everyone who believes in the democratic right to protest, to join them in London at 12 noon on Saturday 18 January for the March for Palestine.

It’s still on

The March for Palestine will assemble in Whitehall, which will allow people to form up in massive numbers in an orderly fashion, and then they will march towards the BBC. Organisers have written today to the Met Police seeking a meeting and asking them to work with them to ensure the march can proceed peacefully and finish with a protest outside the BBC.

The groups call upon the Met to drop any restrictions which would prevent this.

Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:

Hundreds of thousands of people wish to continue to protest at our Government’s ongoing complicity with Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, which reports this week suggested may have killed tens of thousands more than the suggested figure of 46,000. They also wish to protest at the complicity of the BBC which has failed to report the facts of this genocide, as revealed in recent investigations.

There are no legitimate grounds for the Police to impede our proposal to march from Whitehall to the BBC, finishing with a rally outside its HQ. We call upon the Met Police to make clear they will drop any conditions which will deny the right to protest as planned.

Featured image via the Canary