Hundreds march through central London to express solidarity with Palestine
Hundreds of demonstrators have marched through central London to mark Al Quds Day, a global event held each year to express solidarity with Palestine.
Protesters gathered at Marble Arch on Sunday afternoon before marching down Oxford Street towards Portland Place, where a static rally was held near the BBC's Broadcasting House.
Flags and banners were held in the air during the march and chants were heard.
A number of people spoke to the crowd at Marble Arch.
A group of Orthodox Jews also joined the protest, many holding banners, and an Israel flag was burned.
Hadia Saad, 55, said that in the 1980s she would come to march against apartheid, adding: 'This to me is the same thing.'
She said: 'For me it's very important to be seen to be speaking out for the Palestinian people as it seems that our Government doesn't.
'I've written to my MP, I've written to councillors and they come back with the same thing, 'Israel has the right to defend itself' – defend itself from people who are homeless and starving.'
Luba Majed, 42, said: 'I think it's inhumane what they're doing, even if you take all the politics aside.
'I wouldn't want any country or any race or any nationality be eliminated.'
Meanwhile, dozens of people joined a counter-protest, organised by pro-Israeli group Stop The Hate, which took place at the same time at Oxford Circus.
The counter-protesters waved flags and banners, and chanted.
Scores of police officers separated the two groups at Oxford Circus.
Conditions were imposed on both protests to minimise public disruption, the Metropolitan Police said.
The pro-Palestine rally has been criticised in the past after participants flew flags of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and brandished signs with allegedly antisemitic messages.
Last year during the annual Al Quds Day demonstration, 10 people were arrested, the Metropolitan Police said at the time.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Hamas-Qatari plot to scuttle Trump middle east peace plan uncovered by IDF in Gaza: report
Documents found by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza show Qatari officials and leaders of Hamas plotting to scuttle Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the president's first administration, according to a report. The documents apparently show leaders of Qatar and the terror group discussing ways to thwart the peace plan as well as efforts to have Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, normalize relations with Israel, according to Israel's Channel 12. The documents cite an emergency meeting in June 2019 between Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Hamas leaders including Khaled Mashal, former chair of the Hamas Political Bureau. 5 A screenshot from Israel's Channel 12 report claiming Qatari and Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwa, on right) tried to scuttle peace negotiations brokered by President Trump during his first term in office. Israel Channel 12 5 Trump's 'deal of the century' was supposed to end the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians when it was announced in January 2020, but according to leaked documents found by IDF soldiers in Gaza the plan was nixed by Hamas working through Qatari mediators. EPA 'We must work together to oppose and eliminate the 'deal of the century,' ' Mashal said, according to the documents. Six months later Qatar's then-foreign minister Mahammed bin Hamad al Thani, speaking to a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, noted 'the Qatari grants are Hamas's main artery,' referring to cash doled out to the terror group — whose members killed 1,200 Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, was assassinated last year in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. His remains were taken to Qatar where they were buried in Lusail, the country's second largest city. In addition, the documents reportedly include correspondence showing Hamas worked to sideline Egypt's diplomatic efforts in Gaza, and replace it with Qatar. 'The Egyptians were attempting to restrain the escalation and we caused them to leave the picture with empty hands,' said Yahya Sinwar in May 2021, when he was the leader of Hamas in Gaza. 'In their place, the Qataris came, and we gave them an opportunity to dictate the fruits of diplomacy.' Sinwar was killed in October 2024 during fighting by the IDF. 5 Former Hamas Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh called cash grants from Qatar 'the main artery' of the Hamas terrorism network in documents that were leaked to Israel's Channel 12. AP The documents also reportedly reveal messages from Mashal thanking the Qataris for sending the Hamas leadership to Iran for the funeral of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3. 'Thank you to Qatari brothers who agreed to fly us,' reads the note from Haniyeh to the Qatari leadership. In a press release, the Qatari government called the documents, which The Post has not been able to independently verify, 'fabricated.' 5 Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (left) allegedly thanked his 'Qatari brothers' for flying Hamas terrorists to Tehran for the funeral of of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. EPA They claimed they had been circulated in the Israeli media 'in an attempt to sow tension and division between Qatar and the United States at a crucial stage in our efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.' The country's International Media Office said in a June 10 press release the tactic had previously been used 'by those who want diplomacy to fail.' The White House did not return an email seeking comment. A spokesman for Hamas refused comment. 5 Qatar's Emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani (left) was allegedly cited in documents found by the IDF in Gaza in which Hamas leaders discuss how to thwart a Trump peace plan for the region. Getty Images In January 2020, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a deal for a two-state peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan, 'Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,' called for the creation of a State of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem. As part of the deal, Sinwar was offered $10 billion and for Gaza to be recognized as Palestine and Hamas-led in exchange for 'forgetting about' the West Bank and other territory. Sinwar rejected the offer, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The deal ceded major settlements in the West Bank to Israeli sovereignty and called for a four-year freeze on new Israeli settlement construction. Qatar has had a long association with Hamas, who were designated a terror group by the US in 1997. Qatar's current defense minister, Sa'oud Aal Thani, posted tweets in 2014 backing the group during a round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014. 'We are all Hamas,' he posted, according to Middle East Media Research Institute. A spokesman for the IDF declined to say when the trove of documents was found in Gaza.
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
Israel's allies impose sanctions on ministers over West Bank violence
A group of Western nations allied with Israel announced sanctions Tuesday against two far-right ministers they say have incited violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank. Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway all said in a statement that they were taking measures against Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — both ultranationalist settler leaders and members of Israel's coalition government.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Los Angeles anti-ICE rioters are launching the left's American intifada
The riots that kicked off in Los Angeles last weekend aren't just about illegal immigration — they're part of a revolutionary movement. 'Anti-colonialism' is a term often heard in America's college classrooms, but off campus virtually no one takes it seriously. It's just another harebrained radical academic theory, right? Yes, the theory is mostly silly — but the practice is deadly serious. Most Americans and Europeans today feel ashamed of imperialism and racism, and they're glad to be rid of colonies and slavery. All that injustice is a thing of the past, however much its legacy haunts our present. But the ideology of anti-colonialism says otherwise: Imperialism and thoroughgoing racial exploitation never ended and never can end, not until 'settler' and 'colonizer' power is overthrown everywhere. Israel is the focus of the most vitriolic and violent anti-colonial rage, but the United States is just as guilty of being a 'settler-colonial state.' Mexico, and indeed all of Latin America, is America's Palestine, and when illegal immigrants cross the border, when they resist deportation, when they and their allies riot, this is justified resistance to colonialism. In Palestinian terms, it's an intifada, or at least the beginnings of one. Palestinians launched two intifadas against Israel, from 1989 to '93 and from 2000 to '05. These 'uprisings' involved rioting, throwing stones at police and soldiers, hurling Molotov cocktails, and violence up to and including suicide bombings, as well as boycotts, strikes and other forms of economic coercion and nonviolent protest. An American might recognize many of these tactics — though not suicide bombing, thank God — not only as scenes from Los Angeles in recent days but as familiar features from other left-wing protest movements, including those inspired by Black Lives Matter and the killing of George Floyd five years ago. There isn't some grand anti-colonialist conspiracy directing all of this, although there are links between one outburst and another: Usually the thugs who call themselves 'antifa,' for example, are in the vanguard of the provocations. But a conspiracy isn't necessary — the ideology is a franchise, teaching anyone who believes in it to immediately identify enemy groups and what slogans to chant when harassing or hurting them. No radical has to wait for orders to know what to say and do to police or Jews. On social media, conservatives have joked about the Mexican flags some LA rioters have been waving: After all, if you're proud of Mexico and its flag, why would you object to being sent back there? But those flags aren't being waved to make a point about Mexican territory — they're making a point about American territory, Los Angeles itself, which in anti-colonialist eyes belongs to illegal aliens at least as much as to any American. Never mind that Mexico was a product of settler colonization (by Spain) and practiced settler colonization itself in places occupied by indigenous peoples. Anti-colonialism is not about history or consistent philosophical principles; it's about power and acquiring it for those who are willing to take to the streets. That's one reason the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol four years ago was so shocking, when right-wing supporters of Donald Trump were willing to use a little of the force that left-wing protest movements routinely employ. The Jan. 6 rioters saw themselves as decolonizing the Capitol, viewing their enemies as a privileged elite who had somehow stolen the election and therefore the country. That riot didn't involve arson to the degree seen in Los Angeles these past few days, but it was frightening to the left, the political middle and most conservatives because it showed radicalism could expand into the right. Too many Americans who would never dream of rioting themselves have for too long simply accepted that left-wing protests are allowed, even expected, to be violent. They were unprepared for the activist right — not Nazi extremists, but a small subset of otherwise unremarkable Republican voters — to learn from what the anti-colonialist left was allowed to get away with. The lesson all Americans have to learn now, before it's too late, is this kind of violence will keep expanding as long as it's tolerated in the name of anti-colonialism and other progressive causes. There will be more riots, and then there will be more than riots: The premises of anti-colonialism call for intifada, not just in Palestine but right here in America. Law, and law enforcement, has to prevail in Los Angeles, but this is a battle that has to be won in the classroom, and the conscience, as well as in the streets. There will always be some violent extremists, but what sets fire to our cities again and again is the complacency of ordinary Americans who fail to recognize a radical premise when its consequences are broadcast on the nightly news — and world news, too. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.
