British police fear clashes as the protest coincides with the commemoration of the end of the First World War.
Close to 2,000 police officers have been deployed, and Scotland Yard has promised to crack down on any disruption.
Hundreds of thousands took part in the demonstration and demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
Photo: Hollie Adams / Reuters
“The national support march for Palestine” began at 1pm Norwegian time, and is the latest and by far the largest in a series of demonstrations in the British capital in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Taryn Smith and Shayan Bokhari both want a truce.
Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / NRK
– There is a genocide going on. It’s just horrible, says Shayan Bokhari to NRK.
– All we want is a ceasefire. We cannot deal with a genocide under self-defense. That this peace demonstration is described as “a hate march” by our own government is absolutely appalling and inaccurate. This government is not ours, says Taryn Smith.
Between two and three thousand Jews are said to have participated in the demonstration.
Photo: Alishia Abobunde / Reuters
Among the several hundred thousand who took part, there were also between two and three thousand Jewish demonstrators. They want to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
Joseph Noss and his family support the State of Israel, but participate in the demonstration because they believe that what is happening now is illegal and morally reprehensible.
Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / NRK
– I am here because I am proud to be Jewish, support Israel’s right to exist, but what the state is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza… it is not only illegal, but morally reprehensible, says Joseph Noss.
Several arrested
November 11 is Armistice Day, the day the First World War ended. It is widely marked in Great Britain today, and tomorrow the fallen in all wars are remembered.
Around 1,000 people had turned up for a memorial service at the Cenotaph memorial in central London, just a kilometer away from the Gaza demonstration.
Around a thousand people took part in a commemoration just kilometers away from the Gaza demonstration.
Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP
At the memorial, there are clashes between British police and right-wing demonstrators, who are protesting the Gaza marking.
Several of the counter-demonstrators have been arrested, the police write on Twitter.
A counter-demonstrator is arrested by the police in a street close to the demonstration.
Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP
A large group of counter-protesters were arrested on Bridge Street.
Would ban Gaza demonstration
At the start of the week, Scotland Yard said it would use all available powers and tactics to “avoid unrest”.
They considered banning a planned demonstration in support of the Palestinians next Saturday.
Last weekend at least 29 people were arrested in connection with a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London.
Scotland Yard claims that it applied, among other things, to incitement to hatred against ethnic groups.
2023-11-11 17:11:38
#arrested #demonstration #ceasefire #Gaza
