SCOTLAND YARD has been urged to abandon plans to impose new orders that would seriously disrupt Saturday’s March for Palestine demonstration in London.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), union leaders, MPs, peers and coalition partners expressed concern over the force severely restricting the protest in an open letter today.
The Met was accused of employing tactics “to deter people from attending” the 18th national peaceful demonstration against the Gaza genocide since last October.
It came as Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that Britain will suspend some arms sales to Israel.
He said around 30 of 350 licences will be suspended after a review found a “clear risk” that they might be used to commit “a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”
Ministers face huge pressure to end Britain’s complicity in the atrocities committed by Israel – with the Public and Commercial Services union last month saying it had seen new legal advice warning that civil servants were at risk of being found liable for crimes committed by the Israeli state.
On Monday, the Met was accused of refusing to participate in negotiations in a “transparent and accountable” way with the march’s organisers.
Signatories of PSC’s letter raised concerns over the eleventh-hour announcement that the Met wanted the march delayed by nearly two hours “without explanation or rationale” and its refusal to allow Pall Mall as an assembly point.
They added: “We worry that these kind of delays, and late challenges and conditions to the plans of what are entirely peaceful demonstrations, are forming a pattern.”
PSC warned they will be “completely impractical and cause major problems” as the march’s start time has been advertised for weeks with tens of thousands expected to attend after Israel ramped up its attacks on the occupied West Bank.
The campaign group said the force had continually delayed meetings to discuss the march.
When it finally agreed to a meeting on Thursday morning, it cancelled it at 30 minutes’ notice, before announcing to the organisers that it wanted to move the start time at 4pm on Friday.
PSC director Ben Jamal said: “Our plans have been in place and communicated to the Met Police for weeks.
“We have worked with them on every one of the 17 Marches for Palestine so far to ensure we can exercise our democratic rights in a safe, peaceful and effective way.
“But continually the police have delayed meetings, tried to make changes at the eleventh hour on assembly points, and then consistently imposed restrictive orders on the protests without rationale or giving clear evidence.”
Mr Jamal said making changes to the start time “seems to us to be a tactic designed to deter people from attending.”
He said: “All bar one of the 17 previous marches have assembled at 12pm without issue and started no later than 1pm.
“These national marches are huge logistical exercises with tens of thousands of people coming from all over the country.
“They have followed a tried and tested set of arrangements regarding the assembly time and having a pre-announced route.
“It makes no practical sense for the Met to attempt to unilaterally rip up those arrangements.
“We urge the Met to rethink their approach.”
MP signatories included former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Zarah Sultana, Grahame Morris, Clive Lewis, Ayoub Khan, Iqbal Mohamed, Ian Byrne, Jon Trickett, Andy McDonald, Richard Burgon, Ian Lavery, Imran Hussain and Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
Lord John Hendy, Baroness Christine Blower and Lord Bryn Davies also backed the call.
The general secretaries of the RMT, PCS, NEU, TSSA, BFAWU and Aslef signed as well.
On Mr Lammy’s announcement, Sam Perlo-Freeman of the Campaign Against Arms Trade said that exempting parts for F-35 combat aircraft from the suspension was “utterly dangerous and unjustifiable.”
“The only right and legal course of action is to end the supply of F-35 parts to Israel, along with the rest of UK arms sales,” he said.
