Tens of thousands join Nakba Day rally as far-right protest also takes place in central London
Organisers said that around quarter of a million people gathered in central London on Saturday to attend a march marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, which coincided with a separate protest organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The Metropolitan Police, which deployed over 4,000 officers to police the marches in what it described as an "unprecedented" public order operation, announced that it had made 31 arrests in relation to the protests by 4.30pm. It did not specify which protest those arrested had attended.
They said that between 15,000 and 20,000 people attended the pro-Palestine event.
The Nakba Day march is an annual demonstration organised by a coalition of groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, commemorating the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their land and the killing of over 13,000 others by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.
Meanwhile, Robinson's Unite the Kingdom protest was billed as a "people-led assembly focused on unity, awareness, and collective responsibility".
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A Unite the Kingdom rally in September saw far-right protesters attack police and chant anti-Muslim slogans, leading to 23 arrests.
With the two demonstrations assigned separate routes under tight police supervision, few far-right protesters were visible among crowds of demonstrators draped in keffiyehs and Palestinian flags marching from Kensington to Pall Mall.
Organisers of the Nakba 78 march instructed participants not to engage with far-right protesters.
'We still have family members that are being killed every day, and for that reason, it is important we continue marching'
- Hala Hanina, Palestinian refugee activist from Gaza
Speakers at the demonstration included Your Party MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn, independent MP Diane Abbott and the Labour MP John McDonnell.
McDonnell told Middle East Eye that the Nakba Day march "is especially important because the genocide in Gaza is continuing, and because the far-right are marching in London".
"What we need to do now is continue to pressure our government to show solid and committed action, as it is still supplying arms to Israel and refusing to undertake effective sanctions on it," he added.
Hala Hanina, a Palestinian refugee activist from Gaza whose family were displaced in the Nakba, told MEE that "the Nakba is ongoing". She fled Gaza days before Israel's genocide began in October 2023.
"Gaza is almost annihilated now, while the West Bank remains in a very bad situation. We still have family members that are being killed every day, and for that reason, it is important we continue marching."
New police powers
At both marches, police were given extra powers to stop and search without suspicion of an offence.
Police also said that live facial recognition technology was used for the first time during a public order policing operation, though not on the official march routes.
Officers were additionally tasked with policing the FA Cup final at north London's Wembley Stadium between Chelsea and Manchester City, which kicked off at 3pm.
James Harman, deputy assistant commissioner of the Met, said on Wednesday that police officers were "committed to taking a more assertive approach to chanting and the displaying of phrases on placards or banners that incite hatred or indicate support for terrorism or other forms of extremism".
"In recent months, we’ve arrested and charged people for calling for intifada at protests and a number of those cases are going through the courts," he added.
The Nakba 78 protest is the first major pro-Palestinian march since UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for the prosecution of people who chant the phrase "globalise the intifada" on 30 April, prompting condemnation from pro-Palestinian groups.
Speaking in the aftermath of an attack in Golders Green, north London, on 29 April - in which two Jewish men and one Muslim man were stabbed by an assailant who did not use the phrase - Starmer said: “If you stand alongside people who say globalise the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews."
On Thursday, prominent British Palestinians and Arabs called on Starmer to ensure their communities were given “equal protection” from hate crimes during Saturday’s protest.
The joint statement signed by over 50 signatories said: “It is painful to feel that our fears are treated as secondary, or worse, that our peaceful commemoration is viewed only as a policing problem.”
McDonnell said that the UK government had demonstrated "a failure to acknowledge the Islamophobia that is taking place so extensively within our communities."
"The Labour Party needs to ensure that at the heart of our equality campaigning, in the same way that we tackle antisemitism and other forms of racism. I don't think that it has been a sufficient priority up till now."
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