A march calling for a ceasefire in Gaza brought together more than 300,000 people in London on Saturday, November 11. The demonstration was held against the advice of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government.
Around 300,000 people marched peacefully in London on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, a demonstration marred, according to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, by the presence of Hamas supporters and nationalist counter-demonstrators.
The police, citing a figure of around 300,000 people, said it was “the largest march” organised in the city since 7 October.
Quietly waving Palestinian flags and placards calling for a “halt to the bombing of Gaza”, the demonstrators shouted “Free Palestine” and “ceasefire now”, five weeks after the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel, which in response is bombing the Gaza Strip on a massive scale.
Meanwhile in France, home to one of Europe’s largest Muslim communities, more than 16,000 people marched in Paris under the slogan “Stop the massacre in Gaza! There were also more than 20,000 people in Brussels to denounce the “genocide” in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
A large security force was deployed in the British capital to prevent any outbursts, following the arrest of nearly 200 people during previous “Palestine” marches organised since 7 October, and in the face of the mobilisation of nationalist counter-demonstrators, notably from the English Defence League (EDL).
The march was held against the advice of the government, which had deemed it “disrespectful” on the weekend of the commemoration of the First
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
