The police carried out 77 arrests on Saturday, at
a national Gaza and Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest in London in a
further crackdown against pro-Palestinian protestors. According to reports,
some 65 people were arrested for breaching conditions imposed by the police on
the protest and five were arrested for public order offences. The BBC reported
on Sunday that of those arrested, 24 people had been bailed and 48 remained in
custody.
The police said that it was necessary to impose
conditions on the protest to prevent disruption to Londoners. On January 10,
the Met banned the protest from assembling at the BBC's Broadcasting House
headquarters in Portland Place. The banning of the protest at the BBC, was
demanded by many MPs and sections of the media who have denounced the
pro-Palestinian protests as "hate
marches." They claimed that previous marches have "left the Jewish community feeling
intimidated."
The BBC have been condemned and heavily criticised
for their failure to report the truth about the genocide in Gaza. Both the
Labour and previous Conservative government have been complicit in the
slaughter that is taking place against the Palestinian people in Gaza by
supplying arms to the Israelis, which are used against the Palestinians.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), have
issued arrest warrants for both the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu
and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Despite the ICC arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders, the Met
have confirmed that they are seeking to impose a blanket ban on protests in
support of Palestinian rights at the BBC on any Saturday. They police also
confirmed that this ban would not apply to those protesting for other causes
including pro-Israel demonstrations.
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1 comment:
I'm only too aware that the police have been cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests, but what happened in London on Saturday, is hardly 'unprecedented'. On Sunday 13 November 1887, the police broke up a meeting in Trafalgar Square, in London. Some 400 people were arrested and 75 people were badly injured. Two coppers were stabbed and one protestor bayonetted. They call it 'Bloody Sunday'. Eighteen people are said to have died at Peterloo in Manchester when cavalry broke up a peaceful meeting on 16 August 1819, attended by men, women and children, who were demanding Parliamentary Reform. Around 400 to 700 people are said to have been seriously injured. Many of these working people were hit with sabers, bayonetted and trampled on by horses. Two years earlier (1817), the Blanketeers who were marching from Manchester to London to demand Parliamentary Reform and to draw attention to the plight of Lancashire weavers, were violently attacked by the King's Dragoon Guards that left several marchers with sabre wounds and one man shot dead. Many of the marchers were arrested and imprisoned. Most of them never got any further than Stockport. It is claimed that the only marcher to reach London to hand over his petition, was a man called Abel Cauldwell from Stalybridge.
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