London Police Ban Al Quds Day March, First Protest Banned Since 2012
The British government has banned an end-of-Ramadan protest march in central London, with police citing “extreme tensions” in the Middle East in the city, leading to a risk of “serious public disorder” between protests and counter-protests.
United Kingdom Home Secretary [interior minister] Shabana Mahmood has endorsed a recommendation from the Metropolitan Police to ban the annual Al Quds march in central London. Starting today, the ban on the march and any related demonstrations, including counter-protests, will remain in effect for one month.
Police say this is the first time a march has been banned in London since 2012, but note there are no laws in Britain to prevent a static protest, which will take place despite the ban.
Mahmood said in a statement that she believed approval of the unusual ban was “necessary to prevent serious public unrest, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” and that she expected “to see the full force of the law applied to anyone who spreads hatred and division instead of exercising their right to peaceful protest.”
March organizers say they will challenge the ban in court and intend to continue the Al Quds day of protest with a static demonstration.
Explaining its decision to seek a ban, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement that Al Quds is “particularly contentious” and “raises unique risks and challenges.” Citing high numbers of protesters and counter-protesters expected at a time of “extreme tensions between different factions”, the force said the conflict in Iran was likely to contribute to the possibility of unrest. Even with the march banned, police said they were aware a static, legally protected protest was still taking place and said they were calling on additional officers from across the country to deal with “a difficult and potentially violent weekend” of “serious unrest”.
Addressing protesters directly, police said: “We urge organizers to comply with our conditions or face arrest.” Among these organizers, the Metropolitan Police said that the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is an “organization supporting the Iranian regime” and that the Al Quds march “originated in Iran.” Regarding the Iranian threat more generally, the police stated:
…the security services have been publicly clear about the threats we face on British soil from the Iranian regime. Last year, MI5 and counter-terrorism police foiled more than 20 Iranian state-backed attacks on the UK. Last week, counterterrorism agents arrested four people under the national security law after allegedly spying on Jewish communities for the Iranian regime. Separately, this weekend, a man was reportedly stabbed by someone with opposing views on the Iranian regime.
The IHRC rejected the allegations and criticized the police for banning their event. In a statement announcing a static protest and its intention to take legal action, the body accused the police of a political decision. They said:
If it was not already clear, the police openly abandoned their sworn principle of maintaining order without fear or favor, and capitulated to pressure from the Zionist lobby. The Metropolitan Police shamelessly regurgitate Zionist arguments about the IHRC, without a shred of evidence. They cannot present evidence because there is none – we are an independent NGO. This is essentially a politically charged question [decision]; not a single one taken for the safety of the people of London.
Breitbart News has long covered the annual Al Quds Day march and the efforts undertaken by those who attended to stay just about on the right side of the law, timed to coincide with the end of Ramadan and organized to call for Israel’s destruction. In 2016, at the London protest, signs displayed included “Israel is a cancer, we are the cure” and “we are all Hezbollah.”
In 2017, for example, those who wore or wore the Hezbollah flag had a small addendum stapled to their clothing stating “this flag is to show my support for the political wing of Hezbollah”, a dodge given that the British government at the time considered there to be a significant distinction between the military and political sides of Hezbollah.
The United Kingdom subsequently banned Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 2019. More recent editions of the march have seen the Hezbollah flag replaced with the colors of Palestine.
