Around 300,000 people turned out for a large pro-Palestinian rally in London on Saturday as police arrested scores of counter-protesters for attempting to confront the marchers. <\/p>\n
There was heavy police presence in central London\u2019s Hyde Park Corner as protesters chanted \u201cfree, free Palestine\u201d and \u201cceasefire now.\u201d They were also heard chanting \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!\u201d <\/p>\n
Police said they arrested 82 counter-protesters \u201cto prevent a breach of the peace.\u201d They said they had \u201cfaced aggression from counter-protesters.\u201d who stormed the area \u201cin significant numbers\u201d as the rally was building up. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome politicians may be on our side, but they are too afraid to speak out,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
Another protester said the number of people who had turned out for the march was \u201cinspiring.\u201d \u201cWe need to speak out for the voiceless,\u201d they added. <\/p>\n
The police had promised to use \u201call the powers and tactics available to us\u201d to stop the counter-protesters confronting the pro-Palestinian march. <\/p>\n
Far-right\u00a0organizer Tommy Robinson led a small but noisy demonstration to try and reach the Cenotaph, a symbolic landmark which is located in Whitehall, the London district where the Prime Minister and government departments reside. <\/p>\n
During\u00a0the 11th\u00a0hour of the 11th\u00a0day of the 11th\u00a0month, the UK has traditionally observed a two-minute silence to commemorate the moment guns fell silent marking the end of World War I in 1918. <\/p>\n
Video posted on the ground from the anti-racist group Hope Not Hate showed\u00a0far-right\u00a0protestors dressed in black pushing the police lines at various points around Whitehall. <\/p>\n
The unrest follows a political row over the pro-Palestinian protests earlier this week when Britain\u2019s Home Secretary Suella Braverman went off-script to accuse police of being too lenient on the demonstrators. <\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had initially attempted to stop the pro-Palestinian protest from going ahead. <\/p>\n
While later accepting that the march would take place, Sunak stuck to his line that choosing to protest on this particular weekend is \u201cnot just disrespectful but offends our heartfelt gratitude to the memory of those who gave so much so that we may live in freedom and peace today.\u201d <\/p>\n
London Mayor Sadiq\u00a0Khan\u00a0said the disorder seen at London\u2019s Cenotaph on Saturday was a \u201cdirect result\u201d of the words of Braverman. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe scenes of disorder we witnessed by the far-right at the Cenotaph are a direct result of the Home Secretary\u2019s words. The police\u2019s job has been made much harder,\u201d said\u00a0Khan\u00a0on social media, adding that London\u2019s Metropolitan Police has his \u201cfull support to take action against anyone found spreading hate and breaking the law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
Around 300,000 people turned out for a large pro-Palestinian rally in London on Saturday as police arrested scores of counter-protesters for attempting to confront the marchers. There was heavy police presence in central London\u2019s Hyde Park Corner as protesters chanted \u201cfree, free Palestine\u201d and \u201cceasefire now.\u201d They were also heard chanting \u201cfrom the river to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}