PALESTINE campaigners have vowed to continue protests against arms sales to Israel and for a ceasefire despite the Metropolitan Police “ramping up” threats against them.

Organisers of tomorrow’s 19th national demonstration since October 7, marching to the Israeli embassy in London, said that the protest will go on regardless of the “unprecedented” pressures they face from the force, initially to change locations, and now also pushing back the start time by over an hour and a half at the last minute.

Stop the War Coalition (STWC), Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the Jewish Socialists’ Group (JSG), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) said that the Met had enforced restrictions under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act – but had not specified the reasons.

They called on the government to show support for the democratic right to protest and intervene to make the Met “see sense,” and criticised Labour for continuing with the previous Tory government’s support of anti-protest legislation.

“In the week that the government had to admit that it must suspend at least some arms licences to Israel, albeit just a fraction, it is imperative that the police do not hinder an entirely peaceful march in support of the people of Palestine, an end to the genocide in Gaza and a ban on all Israeli arms sales,” they said in a statement.

Speaking at a press conference, PSC director Ben Jamal said that the protests were continuing after 11 months as Israel is still not under meaningful pressure from governments despite the more than 40,000 deaths and charge of genocide by the International Criminal Court.

Mr Jamal said that the police had tried to demonise the demonstrations from the start but that the force was now “ramping up this repression” by delaying responses and refusing the protest permission to proceed as it has for 11 months.

He said: “We believe it is the police’s responsibility to facilitate peaceful protests as part of unfolding democratic freedoms.

“It’s also the responsibility of the government and the Home Secretary to ensure that they are doing that.

“The actions [the Met] have taken, and are threatening to take, seriously undermine the right to protest and risk creating scenes of disorder.

“Our core concern remains to ensure that pressure is maintained on everybody in the UK who is complicit with what Israel is doing, including through holding peaceful marches.”

Chris Nineham of STWC highlighted “serious repression” of the Palestine movement, adding: “In the last 11 months, we have experienced the most restrictive prejudice and hostile approach to protest by the Metropolitan Police that any movement that has actually been involved in negotiating with the police can remember.

“We have organised 18 mass national demos, which have, by the police’s own admission, been entirely peaceful.”

Mr Nineham said that every single protest has had orders placed on them by the force despite the groups spending hours in meetings with them, and highlighted how thousands were allowed to protest recently against the far-right riots.

He said: “It’s not about disruption at the end of the day. It’s not about people being in the streets. It is, we can only conclude, about Palestine.

“There is a special hostility from the police, no doubt, generated by political pressure, to the protests that are taking place in defence of the Palestinian people.”

Yasmine Adam of MAB warned that the police’s actions “harm every person” and “set a dangerous precedent.”

She said that attempts to stifle the movement will “only make us stronger.”

David Rosenberg of the JSG said the group rejected any attempts by the force to divide communities and hit out at Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for extending his relationship with the Jewish community to only “establishment groups” and ignoring the community’s diversity.

FOA’s Shamiul Joarder said that the Met had no need to impose restrictions as the protests have “always worked well and continue to work well” due to the will of the public to end the genocide.

The campaigners said that the increased crackdown “makes participation even more vital” and that the previous targeting of the Armistice Day demonstration had been met with more support from the public.

Protesters from across the country will gather in Pall Mall, London at 12 noon tomorrow before marching to the Israeli embassy.