Join Palestine protests or you're complicit in Israel's war, say organisers
Organisers of pro-Palestine marches have claimed that people are “complicit” in Israel’s war if they do not attend.
A representative of the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB) issued the warning ahead of a “global day of action” on Jan 13, in which coaches are being laid on from Birmingham as activists attempt to attract the largest march since the Israel-Hamas war began.
The group held another demonstration outside Downing Street on Saturday afternoon in which a crowd of around 200 chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” dozens of times.
Among six speakers to address the Westminster crowd was Dr Anas Altikriti, who previously co-founded a group called the British Muslim Initiative with a senior commander in Hamas, who described Israel as an “apartheid Zionist killing machine”.
Another man wearing a keffiyeh scarf took to the stage to lead chants before warning people of the controversial mass rally on Jan 13 against Israel’s military campaign, the latest in a series of giant parades held in the capital since October: “If you choose to not come to the march then you are complicit, unless you are working.”
The rapper Lowkey, whose real name is Kareem Dennis, also spoke at the Whitehall demonstration calling on residents of towns across the country to “shut down” BAE Systems factories in Britain which he claimed are being used to build parts for F-35 jets used by Israel.
He told the crowd “we have a moral and legal obligation to shut down Israeli arms companies acting in this country today, now, as soon as possible” and asked people “from the front to the back to scream so loud that they hear you in the Israeli embassy all the way down in Kensington”.
Lowkey previously failed to explicitly condemn Hamas as a terrorist group when grilled on Piers Morgan’s show on TalkTV in October.
At one point, a passing London bus driver on Transport for London’s 82 route through Whitehall honked his horn repeatedly in support of the PFB protesters on the pavement.
Police officers watched on as the controversial “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” chant was shouted countless times, despite calls from ministers for it to be considered a hate crime. The Metropolitan Police said there were no arrests.
Other chants included “Israel is a terror state” and “from the sea to the river Palestine forever”, while Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, and Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, were labelled “despicable” for their stance on the war, which began when Hamas invaded Israel on Oct 7.
A group of Jewish people also turned up at the protest with banners saying “the Zionists ignited the fire” and “state of ‘Israel’ does not represent world Jewry”.
Meanwhile in Birmingham, pro-Palestine activists blocked a shopping concourse whilst shouting “Israel is a terror state” and “ceasefire now” on Saturday afternoon.
Another pro-Palestine march in December forced some Oxford Street shops to shut after Christmas trading was disrupted by a large group of activists marching down it.
A total of 300 people were arrested at pro-Palestine marches in London between October and December, many for offensive placards.
Many pro-Israeli vigils have been held in the capital for the 200 hostages seized by Hamas, a proscribed terror group, but these events have passed peacefully.
Estimates suggest that more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israeli attacks to wipe out Hamas began, while around 1,400 Israelis were killed in the Hamas invasion.
