16 January 2025

Led By the Jewish Bloc We Will Be Marching on Saturday March 18 to the BBC Whatever the Institutionally Racist Metropolitan Police Say

In Their Desire to Protect BBC Bias the Met are Once Again Hiding Behind Jews 


Owen Jones Interviews Ben Jamal about Zionist 'fears' about Marches Against Genocide in Gaza

As we celebrate the ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire that despite his claims, Genocide Joe Biden has nothing to do with, we see the Metropolitan Police giving a veto to the Genocidal ‘Chief Rabbi’ Mirvis, a settler-trained rabbi who is an out and out racist, having participated in the ‘Death to the Arabs’ flag marches in Jerusalem.

As Nina Morris-Evans wrote in the Times of Israel in May 2017:

I’m ashamed of activities endorsed by two of the most influential members of the Orthodox movement: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. This week they were in Jerusalem to support festivities planned by the organisation Mizrachi Olami.

One of these events is the annual Jerusalem Day March of the Flags on 24 May (yesterday). Thousands of young people from across the country were bussed in to march through the Jewish Old City, shutting down most of the Muslim quarter and surrounding areas.

This march has come to be associated with growing levels of hate speech and racist violence, including shouts of “Death to Arabs” and vandalism to Palestinian property. Today (Thursday), some of the delegates were due to visit Hebron and dance through the streets with IDF soldiers.

Hebron is a city in which 200,000 residents live under the control of 600 soldiers, protecting 850 settlers. This celebration is an unequivocally political act, blatantly supporting the settlers’ presence there.

That the Police base their decision to try and reroute the Palestine  march on the views of this out and out racist says everything about their political partisanship.

It is incredibly important that Saturday’s Palestine demonstration is the largest yet

The Police’s decision to try to ban Saturday’s march against Genocide in Gaza because the‘proposed route would have caused serious disruption to a central London synagogue’ is a lie. Lying comes as easily to the Met as a duck to water.

Laughably the Met also said ‘our role is not to take sides’. The fact that the Met have raised disruption to a synagogue, that is not even on the route, as a pretext to prevent a demonstration proves that they have taken sides. The side of the supporters  of Genocide in Gaza.


Owen Jones Interview with Ben Jamal on Police Obstruction

Implicit in this decision is the assumption that the march poses a threat to Jews. This has been the long-standing refrain of Israel’s genocide supporters but there isn’t a sliver of evidence for it.

The Met have consistently accepted the racialised narrative that Palestinian demonstrations pose a threat to Jewish  people. Their colonial mindset is incapable of understanding that the Palestinian fight for liberation is not an anti-Jewish one but an anti-Zionist one.

According to this playbook Palestinians reject colonisation and occupation, not because of dispossession and the theft of land and water but because they are anti-Jewish.

A similar narrative operated in Apartheid South Africa. According to apologists for White Supremacy Black people opposed racial discrimination not because they didn’t like being discriminated against but because they were anti-White. So it is with the Jewish Supremacist State of Israel.

The Met have demonstrated this colonial and imperialist mentality repeatedly over the last 15 months. Julia Bard described how, on the 9 December 2023 demonstration:

a cordon of police officers materialised in front of us, separating us from the march. They apparently had the idea that, since we were Jews, we must be counterdemonstrators.

We tried again and again to explain that we were there in support of the Palestinians, and had been present on the entire march....

But they simply couldn’t or wouldn’t compute the idea of Jews supporting Palestinians. This isn’t the first time. We’re getting used to police seeing the word “Jewish” on banners and telling us which side we’re on — and if we don’t agree, trying to stop us from joining the Palestine marches.

A month earlier, at the protest on November 11, the several-hundred-strong Jewish bloc assembled in Belgrave Square before joining the main march as it passed a nearby junction. While we were waiting, two Forward “Intelligence” Team officers — the police in the baby-blue vests — asked to speak to “the organiser” of what they evidently thought was a separate protest....

Since they would not accept that people holding banners with the word “Jewish” on them could support the Palestinians, we spontaneously started chanting “Free free Palestine,” until, eventually, one of the police officers got the point.

A more serious incident occurred on 18th May 2024.

Jewish pro-Palestine protester assaulted when pushed into hostile counter protest by Metropolitan Police Officer

UK – On 18 May 2024, as a result of Police actions, a Jewish activist named Jessica L was assaulted by counter-protesters when she attended the pro-Palestine ‘National March for Ceasefire’ wearing a Kippah and t-shirt with “Jews Say Ceasefire Now”.

Counter-protesters had gathered holding Israel flags. When Jessica passed by this area they became visibly and audibly hostile to her, shouting derogatory, misogynistic, Islamophobic and antisemitic abuse. Jessica was subjected to slurs such as “Kapo” and accusations of being a self-hating Jew—terms uniquely weaponized against Jewish supporters of Palestinian liberation. She also received explicit threats of violence and sexual assault.

A Met Police Liaison Officer identified Jessica as Jewish based on her attire, forcibly removed her from the main protest, and then pushed her towards the counter-protestors as he shouted at her to “get back over there”. The counter-protestors proceeded to reach across the barriers, pulled Jessica towards them by the hair, attempted to remove her kippah, struck her, spat on her, and they continued to shout misogynistic and antisemitic abuse at her.

Jessica shouted for help, but police officers failed to intervene. Eventually, she freed herself with the help of PSC stewards and rejoined the demonstration. A police officer then communicated that they wanted Jessica to leave the demonstration due to the amount of hatred and hostility she was receiving from the counter-protesters. Jessica sought to report the assault to police officers, but she was told to report it online. When she then went to make a report at a station, she was refused an in-person meeting with a supervising officer.

Jessica L – a member of Na’amod and JVL – has instructed Bindmans LLP to pursue breaches of her human rights to freedom of expression, assembly and to enjoy these rights without discrimination. The claim is supported by a letter confirming that she felt humiliated, shaken, and degraded by the police conduct and the assault by counter-protesters, facilitated by the police officer’s discriminatory conduct. The incident forced her to leave the protest early.

The incident highlights the forms of intimidation and discrimination, including verbal and physical abuse, that confront anti / non-Zionist Jews who publicly and privately support justice for Palestinians. Jessica L has requested an apology and a meeting with senior Metropolitan Police officers in order to discuss the experiences of Jewish protesters marching in support of Palestine and to propose changes to policing these demonstrations.

Jessica L commented:

“It was terrifying enough to be within the grasp of counter protesters spouting antisemitic hate speech and threats of violence but when a police officer pushed me into their protest, seemingly because he believed that this was the protest where Jewish people belonged, I immediately feared I was in serious danger of harm as the mob grabbed at me, pulling my hair, spitting on me and hurling vile antisemitic abuse at me. I screamed for help and no police officer intervened – thankfully the protest stewards helped me. It was insult to injury to later be told that the police believed I should leave the demonstration because, essentially, they viewed my Jewishness as a provocation, attracting obvious hostility and hatred from the counter protesters, when their focus should have been on protecting my right to protest in safety from violent, antisemitic and Islamophobic hatred.”

Max Hammer, a spokesperson from Na’amod, said:

“The incident on 18 May stands out for the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police officers on site. By inferring a set of political beliefs from the Jewish activist’s physical appearance, the officers not only displayed a distressing lack of awareness of the political diversity within the UK Jewish community, but also demonstrated their inability to keep non- and anti-Zionist Jews safe from antisemitic abuse directed at them by far-right ultra-Zionists.


The police’s role in this violent assault comes amid … repeated labelling of largely peaceful Palestine solidarity marches as “hate marches”. The incident illustrates a persistent issue in the Police’s failure to recognise or prevent the unique forms of antisemitism and right-wing violence directed against non- and anti-Zionist Jews. Neither the Metropolitan Police nor the CST, a charity which collects antisemitism data used by the police, have a reporting system for incidents of antisemitic abuse by Jews against other Jews. …

Given that the prevailing media narrative surrounding PSC’s marches has been that they are unsafe for Jewish people, it is unsurprising that our presence at the marches is not recognized by the police. We urgently call on the police to improve its understanding of Jewish community dynamics and anti-Semitism…

The fight against antisemitism can only be successful if it combats all forms of antisemitism, including those directed against Jewish people who march in solidarity with the people of Palestine.”

Jeffrey Newman, Rabbi Emeritus, commented:

“Jewish campaigners and groups who have campaigned against the Occupation of the West Bank and the war on Gaza or for recognition of the right of Palestinians to their own State on the West Bank and Gaza are frequently vociferously opposed, sometimes with the use of force, by other Jews.

There is a word for the behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers who refuse to understand or recognise that not all Jews support Genocide in Gaza and that is anti-Semitism.



That is why the MPS has rejected the route that was already agreed, citing spurious concerns about the Central Synagogue.  The Met’s justification is here. The Jewish Bloc therefore issued a second statement on 14.1.25.

What will the Met do? attack the JB in order to protect Jews?

BBC Exec Downplayed Israel ‘Plausible Genocide’ Ruling to Dismayed Colleagues


Stephen Kapos, a holocaust survivor, speaks at Palestine solidarity demonstration


Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Sign Open Letter Opposing Ban on BBC Protest

The Metropolitan police intend to ban the 18 January Palestine march from the area around the BBC headquarters in Portland Place in London. Their excuse is that Jewish attendees at a synagogue that is well away from the march route will suffer ‘disruption’ of their religious worship.

We are writing as Jewish Holocaust survivors, and descendants of survivors, to protest against this clear attempt to dissuade people from opposing the Gaza genocide. Along with thousands of other openly Jewish protesters, we have attended numerous Palestine demos in London and have received nothing but support and warmth from our fellow demonstrators. To suggest that the 18 January march is a threat to Jews, or is in any way antisemitic, is simply a fabrication in order to restrict everyone’s right to protest.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Kapos (survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)

Agnes Kory (survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)

Haim Bresheeth (son of two survivors of Auschwitz)

Mark Etkind (son of a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and Buchenwald)

Aurora Yaakov (daughter of survivor of Dachau & Kaufering camps)

Yosefa Loshitzky (daughter of survivors of the Holocaust in Poland)

Miranda Pinch (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Czechoslovakia)

Ursula Blumenthal (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)

Peter Kapos (son of a Holocaust survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary)

Peter Hall (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)

Sonja Linden (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)

Chris Romberg (son of a survivor of the Holocaust in Austria)

Beatrice Hoffman (daughter of a survivor of the Holocaust in Germany)

Palestine Solidarity Campaign have also issued a Statement on police barring 18 January march from the BBC which has been signed by 42 Members of Parliament and many others.

We strongly condemn police attempts to stop an agreed march for Palestine from protesting at the BBC on 18 January.

The route for the march was confirmed with the police nearly two months ago and as agreed with them, was publicly announced on 30 November. This route has only been used twice in the last 15 months of demonstrations and not since February 2024. With just over a week to go, the Metropolitan Police is reneging on the agreement and has stated its intention to prevent the protest from going ahead as planned.

The BBC is a major institution – it is a publicly-funded state broadcaster and is rightly accountable to the public. The police should not be misusing public order powers to shield the BBC from democratic scrutiny.

The excuse offered by the police is that the march could cause disruption to a nearby synagogue which is not even on the march route. As the Met Police have acknowledged, there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue attached to any of the marches. Any suggestion that pro-Palestine marches are somehow hostile to Jewish people ignores the fact that Jewish people have been joining the marches in their thousands.

The rights to protest and free speech are precious. It is not acceptable in a democratic society that, in the face of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, people should be barred from protesting at the BBC. We call on the police to drop their objections and allow the protest to go ahead as planned.

Palestine Coalition Organisations 

Adnan Hmidan, Acting Chairman, Palestinian Forum in Britain 

Ben Jamal, Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

Ismail Patel, Chairman, Friends of Al-Aqsa 

Lindsey German, Convenor, Stop the War Coalition 

Raghad Altikriti, Chair, Muslim Association of Britain 

Sophie Bolt, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament 

Members of Parliament (42)

Abtisam Mohamed MP

Adnan Hussain MP 

Andy McDonald MP 

Apsana Begum MP 

Ayoub Khan MP 

Baroness Christine Blower 

Baroness Jenny Jones 

Baroness Pauline Bryan 

Baroness Rosie Boycott 

Bell Riberio Addy MP 

Brendan O’Hara MP 

Brian Leishman MP 

Carla Denyer MP 

Cathal Mallaghan MP 

Chris Hazzard MP 

Chris Law MP 

Dáire Hughes MP 

Dawn Butler MP 

Diane Abbott MP 

Dr Simon Opher MP

Grahame Morris MP 

Ian Byrne MP 

Imran Hussain MP 

Iqbal Mohamed MP 

Jeremy Corbyn MP 

John Finucane MP 

John McDonnell MP 

Jon Trickett MP 

Kim Johnson MP 

Lord Bryn Davies 

Lord John Hendy 

Lord Prem Sikka 

Nadia Whittome MP 

Órfhlaith Begley MP 

Pat Cullen MP 

Paul Maskey MP 

Richard Burgon MP 

Seamus Logan MP 

Shockat Adam MP 

Siân Berry MP 

Steve Witherden MP 

Zarah Sultana MP 


Trade Union and Civil Society Leaders 

Akiko Hart, Director, Liberty 

Amnesty International UK 

ARTICLE 19

Asad Rehman, Executive Director, War on Want 

Brian Linn, General Secretary, Aegis the Union 

Charlotte Marshall, Director, Sabeel-Kairos UK 

Christians for Palestine UK 

Climate Justice Coalition  

Daniel Garnham, General Secretary, Security Industry Federation (SIF) 

Daniel Kebede, General Secretary, National Education Union (NEU) 

Dave Ward, General Secretary, Communication Workers Union (CWU) 

David Wilson, co-founder, War Child 

Dr Jo Grady, General Secretary, University College Union (UCU) 

Dr Sara Husseini, Director, British Palestinian Committee 

Fran Heathcote, General Secretary, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) 

Gawain Little, General Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) 

Greenpeace UK 

John McGowan, General Secretary, Social Workers Union (SWU) 

Kate Flannery, Secretary, Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign 

Louise Hazan, Co-Director, Tipping Point UK 

Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association

Matt Wrack, General Secretary, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) 

Mick Lynch, General Secretary, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) 

Mick Whelan, General Secretary, Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) 

Nick Dearden, Director, Global Justice Now 

Peace & Justice Project 

People & Planet 

Rev Chris Rose, Director, Amos Trust 

Sarah Woolley, General Secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union

Steve Gillan, General Secretary, Prison Officers Association (POA) 

Steve North, President, Unison 

Zamir Dreni, General Secretary, App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) 

Zita Holbourne, Joint National Chair, Artists Union England and Chair BARAC UK 

 

Prominent individuals including artists, journalists, academics and lawyers  

Ahdaf Soueif, novelist 

Ahmed Alnaouq, journalist and director of We Are Not Numbers 

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, journalist 

Alex Lawther, actor and filmmaker 

Alex Nunns, author 

Alexei Sayle, author and comedian 

Andrew Murray, journalist 

Andy de la Tour, actor 

Ben Smoke, journalist 

Bilal Hasna, actor 

Brian Eno, musician 

Brigid Keenan, writer and co-founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature 

Charlotte Church, singer 

Daniel Levy, writer and political analyst 

Francesca Martinez, comedian and writer 

Hamza Yusuf, journalist 

Harriet Walter, actor 

Jasleen Kaur, artist (winner of the Turner Prize 2024) 

Jen Brister, comedian and actor 

Jo Siedlecka, editor, Independent Catholic News 

John Rees, journalist 

Juliet Stevenson, actress 

Kamila Shamsie, novelist 

Katharine Hamnett, fashion designer 

Ken Loach, director 

Khalid Abdalla, actor 

Kim Longinotto, filmmaker 

Kneecap, music band 

Lemn Sissay, author and broadcaster 

Mark Adderley, director 

Mark Rylance, actor 

Mark Seddon, former speechwriter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon 

Max Porter, writer 

Maxine Peake, actor and writer 

Mike Lerner, producer 

Myriam François, journalist and filmmaker 

Nadia Sawalha, actor 

Nadim Sawalha, actor 

Nancy Strang, producer and filmmaker 

Omar Robert Hamilton, author 

Owen Jones, journalist 

Paloma Faith, singer-songwriter 

Pam Hogg, fashion designer 

Peter Kennard, Professor Emeritus of Political Art, Royal College of Art 

Rachel Holmes, author 

Rana Begum RA, artist 

Rebecca O’Brien, producer 

Richard Sanders, journalist and TV producer 

Riz Ahmed, actor 

Sarah Agha, actress 

Susan Abulhawa, author 

Taj Ali, journalist 

Tariq Ali, political activist and writer 

The Mary Wallopers, band 

Tony Graham, theatre director 

Tracy Seaward, producer 

Victoria Brittain, journalist and author 

Vijay Prashad, author 

Yanis Varoufakis, economist and politician 

Yusuf Cat Stevens, singer 

Zackie Achmat, filmmaker and activist 

Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor, Kings College London 

Alex Gordon, former President, RMT 

Amira Nimerawi, CEO, Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P) 

Anas Altikriti, CEO & Founder, The Cordoba Foundation 

Andi Kocsondi, GFTU National Executive 

Andrew Feinstein, political activist 

Barnaby Raine, historian  

Brian Shaw, London and South East Regional Secretary, PCS

Chris Doyle, Director, Caabu 

Clare Short, former Secretary of State for International Development 

Claudia Webbe, former MP 

Daniel Machover, solicitor 

Dr Andrew Myerson, A and E Doctor, London Hospital 

Dr Elina Shaari, Surgeon, London 

Dr Feyzi Ismail, Goldsmiths University of London 

Dr Michelle Staggs Kelsall, Senior Lecturer in International Law, SOAS University of London 

Dr Milly Williamson, Goldsmiths, University of London 

Dr Paul O’Connell, Reader in Law, SOAS University of London 

Dr Tanzil Chowdhury, Associate Professor in Public Law, Queen Mary University of London

Emeritus Professor Bill Bowring FAcSS, Barrister, Field Court Chambers 

Emeritus Professor Mica Nava, University of East London 

Fraser McGuire, Unite the Union Hospitality Sector activist & Arise – a Festival of Left Ideas 

Geoffrey Shears, trade union lawyer 

Gholam Kiabany, Goldsmiths, University of London  

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers 

Hugh Lanning, Labour & Palestine 

James Schneider, author and activist 

Jess Barnard, Labour National Executive Committee 

Khaled Dawas, Director of GI Surgery, UCLH 

Leanne Mohamad, political activist  

Linsay Taylor, CEO, Muslim Engagement & Development (MEND) 

Matt Foot, Criminal Defence Lawyer 

Matt Willgress, editor, Labour Outlook 

Max Holloway, Leader of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council 

Michael Mansfield KC, barrister and head of chambers at Nexus Chambers 

Mohammed Kozbar, Deputy Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain  

Muhammad Uddin, Newham Muslim Forum 

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Jewish Voice for Labour 

Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law, SOAS University of London 

Omar Abdel-Mannan, President/Chair, Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P)  

Paul Heron, Legal Director, Public Interest Law Centre 

Professor Adam Hanieh, University of Exeter 

Professor Alpa Shah, University of Oxford  

Professor Catherine Rottenberg 

Professor Des Freedman, Goldsmiths, University of London 

Professor John Sloboda, PalAcademic Campaign 

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead 

Professor Justin Schlosberg, University of Westminster 

Professor Laleh Khalili, University of Exeter   

Professor Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths, London University 

Professor Neve Gordon 

Professor (Emeritus) Phil Taylor 

Rachel Waller, solicitor and former Chair and Trustee of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) 

Swee Ang, co-founder and honorary patron, Medical Aid for Palestinians 

Todd Wolfson, President, American Association of University Professors 

Zack Polanski, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and London Assembly Member 

Zoë Garbett, Green Party London Assembly Member 

 See also BBC Exec Downplayed Israel ‘Plausible Genocide’ Ruling to Dismayed Colleagues

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