Oliver Dowden claimed that at earlier marches, there had been “hateful conduct.”
The Deputy Prime Minister expressed “grave concerns” about a pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day, and this has put increasing pressure on Britain’s senior police officer to demand that the event be banned.
Oliver Dowden expressed concern that this weekend’s scheduled protests could turn violent because there had been “hateful conduct” during past marches in the capital.
His remarks follow the police-ordered closure of London’s Charing Cross station on Saturday due to demonstrators supporting Palestine occupying the concourse.
Masked activists fired pyrotechnics towards four injured officers in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square.
Additionally, 29 persons were taken into custody on charges of assaulting a police officer and inciting racial hatred.
The Met announced last night that six persons were facing charges related to public order offences.
Furthermore, Scotland Yard reported that police had’received intelligence that a booklet claiming to advocate Hamas was on sale’ at the demonstration.
According to the report, a guy was detained yesterday in Parliament Square after it was claimed that he had made anti-Semitic remarks.
“There is hateful conduct in those marches,” stated Mr. Dowden.
The cries of phrases like “jihad” that you have heard are offensive to all of British culture, not just the Jewish community.
And I believe that everyone should be speaking out against that kind of behaviour, and those participating in the marches should consider whether or not they are endorsing it.
In the event that there is a risk of significant disruption, Home Secretary Suella Braverman can be contacted by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to request approval of a demonstration ban.
The force stated last night that they are “keeping the possible use of this legislation under constant review,” although they haven’t committed to doing so yet.
According to John Healey, a spokesman for Labour’s defence policy, the rally ought to proceed provided that the demonstrators behaved politely.
“Freedom of expression and protest are essential in democracies like ours, but we also need to respect the Remembrance service, all cenotaphs and memorials, and the two minutes of silence on Saturday—not just the Remembrance parade on Sunday,” he continued.
In addition to promising to keep the route clear of Whitehall and the Cenotaph, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other organisers of the Armistice Day march, scheduled for November 11, have agreed to meet with police officials again today to continue their conversation.
Additionally, it is anticipated that the march will begin around 12:45 p.m., about two hours after the two-minute silence held in remembrance of the soldiers lost in the First World War and other conflicts.
However, there are worries that certain groups may break away from the main throng and engage in combat with right-wing counter-protesters who intend to encircle the Cenotaph.
The King and other members of the Royal Family will lead the country in a national service of remembering at the Cenotaph on November 12, remembering Sunday.
Thousands of officers would be deployed, according to the Met, which insisted that anyone looking to cause trouble would fail.
“As in recent weeks, we have been speaking with the organisers of the pro-Palestine march,” a spokeswoman stated.
We’ll keep in contact with them.
We recognise Armistice Day’s national significance.
We’ll be deploying thousands of officers in a massive security operation, and we’ll be using every tool at our disposal—including force and coercion—to make sure that anyone trying to undermine it is defeated.
The gathering on Saturday has been referred to by Mrs. Braverman as a “hate march.”
‘It is utterly wrong to desecrate Armistice Day with a hate march through London,’ Mrs. Braverman wrote in response to a tweet from the Prime Minister in which Rishi Sunak called the plans ‘provocative and insulting’.
Mr. Dowden expressed his continual surprise that anti-Semitism did not seem to be met with the same disgust as most types of racism.
“I am a little disappointed that we haven’t seen, across civic society, the same kind of moral clarity showing Jewish lives matter,” he continued, pointing to the moral outrage and clarity that followed George Floyd’s murder in the United States and the Black Lives Matter movement.
After more than 30,000 protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, some of whom waved anti-Semitic posters and chanted anti-Israel songs, demonstrators have threatened to take over more rail stations in the nation’s capital this weekend.
A few yelled the catchphrase “from the river to the sea,” while another carried a banner bearing the words “If I don’t steal it, somebody else will—an Israeli proverb.”
Additionally, a woman was observed waving a sign that showed the Star of David being tossed into a trash can.