London rally demands release of hostages in Gaza as Mideast tensions grip U.K.
The protesters, who planned to march to the prime minister's residence for a rally, include Noga Guttman, a cousin of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David, who was featured in a video that enraged Israelis when it was released by Hamas militants last week. The video showed an emaciated David saying he was digging his own grave inside a tunnel in Gaza.
Hamas-led militants kidnapped 251 people when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. About 50 of the hostages still haven't been released, of whom 20 are thought to be alive.
Israel last week announced its intention to occupy Gaza City as part of a plan to end the war and bring the captives home. Family members and many international leaders have condemned the plan, saying it would lead to more bloodshed and endanger the hostages.
'We are united in one clear and urgent demand: the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,' Stop the Hate, a coalition of groups organizing the march, said in a statement. 'Regardless of our diverse political views, this is not a political issue — it is a human one.'
The march comes a day after police arrested 532 people at a protest in support of a banned pro-Palestinian organization.
The demonstrators on Saturday sought to pressure the government to overturn its decision to ban the group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. Legislation passed last month makes it a crime to publicly support the group.
The Metropolitan Police Service said it arrested 522 people for supporting Palestine Action. Ten others were arrested on other charges, including assaults on police officers.
The government banned Palestine Action after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two tanker planes to protest British support for the war in Gaza. Palestine Action had previously targeted Israeli defense contractors and other sites in Britain that they believe have links with the Israeli military.
Backers of the group, who have held a series of protests around the U.K. in the last month, argue that the law illegally restricts freedom of expression.
More than 500 protesters filled the square outside the Houses of Parliament on Saturday, many daring police to arrest them by displaying signs reading, 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' That was enough for police to step in.
As the demonstration began to wind down, police and protest organizers disagreed over the number of arrests, as the organizers sought to show that the law was unworkable.
'The police have only been able to arrest a fraction of those supposedly committing 'terrorism' offenses, and most of those have been given street bail and allowed to go home,' Defend Our Juries, which organized the protest, said in a statement. 'This is a major embarrassment to [the government], further undermining the credibility of this widely ridiculed law, brought in to punish those exposing the government's own crimes.'
London's Metropolitan Police Service rejected that assertion, saying that many of those gathered in the square were onlookers, media members or people who didn't hold placards supporting the group.
'We are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested,' the police force said in a statement Saturday.
On Friday, police said the demonstration was unusual in that the protesters wanted to be arrested in large numbers to place a strain on police and the criminal justice system.
The government moved to ban Palestine Action after the activists broke into an air force base in southern England on June 20. The activists sprayed red paint into the engines of two tanker planes at the RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire and caused further damage with crowbars.
Supporters of the group are challenging the ban in court, saying the government has gone too far in declaring Palestine Action a terrorist organization.
'Once the meaning of 'terrorism' is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead,' Defend Our Juries said on its website.
Though Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to recognize a Palestinian state later this year, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticize the government for not doing enough to end the war in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that ended outside the gates of No. 10 Downing St., the prime minister's official residence and offices.
Police are also preparing for protests outside hotels across the U.K. that are being used to house asylum seekers. Protesters and counterprotesters have squared off outside the hotels in recent weeks, with some saying the migrants pose a risk to their communities and others decrying what they see as anti-immigrant racism.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the scale of the events would 'put pressure' on the police department.
'This is going to be a particularly busy few days in London with many simultaneous protests and events that will require a significant policing presence,' Adelekan said before the protests began.
Kirka writes for the Associated Press.
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