Metropolis Desk-
Following police threats that anyone seen to be supporting Hamas could be arrested, thousands of people turned out for a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday in downtown London.
Before an afternoon rally in front of parliament and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street office and mansion, attendees assembled outside BBC News’ headquarters during the morning and started marching around the British city.
Ahead of a series of scheduled speeches, several carried posters and Palestinian flags with the words “freedom for Palestine,” “end the massacre,” and “sanctions for Israel.”
Ismail Patel, the head of the Friends of Al-Aqsa movement, told AFP during the protest, “I think all just people around the world, not just in Britain, must stand up and call for this madness (to end).”
Otherwise, we could witness a disaster develop over the next few days.
The demonstration coincides with Israel’s escalating bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the deployment of tens of thousands of troops in the area in anticipation of an anticipated ground invasion within the enclave as part of its campaign to destroy Hamas’ capabilities.
That comes after the assault by Hamas on Saturday, during which hundreds of its members crossed the Israeli border to kidnap and murder over a thousand Israelis in the streets, in their houses, or during a rave party.
The Metropolitan Police Service in London announced ahead of the demonstration that it would send out over a thousand officers, as the events hundreds of miles away continue to have an impact on Britain and other countries.
Since the Hamas attack, anti-Semitic crimes and occurrences in the UK have increased, according to police and the government. On Friday, authorities in Sussex, southeast England, detained a 22-year-old woman who they believed had given a speech endorsing Hamas.
Members of a terrorist group that is outlawed in Britain, as well as those found guilty of encouraging support for it, face sentences of up to 14 years in prison.
This Monday, the Met reaffirmed that it is illegal to promote Hamas but stated that broad demonstrations of sympathy for Palestinians, such as displaying the Palestinian flag, are not crimes.
Uzbek student Ferouza Namaz, 34, participated in the London demonstration and claimed that Gaza’s civilian population is “absolutely innocent.”
“Killing someone for being Palestinian does not give you the right to do so.” These horrifying crimes have been committed for a very long time,” he continued.
Israel maintains that it does not intentionally target Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, for civilian purposes.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the United Kingdom, however, told AFP that the organization’s reaction to Hamas’s attack was unfairly blaming people for terrorism and “dehumanizing Palestinians.”
He went to the demonstration to deliver “a message of solidarity to the Palestinian people, and particularly today to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who are under siege with all food cut off.”
Jamal pointed out that those in attendance were also sending a message to the political leaders in the UK, whom he charged with “allowing Israel to commit acts of war crime.”
Source- Arab News
