Burak Bir
13 January 2025•Update: 13 January 2025
LONDON
More than 660 Jews have called on the Metropolitan Police to reverse a ban on a planned pro-Palestine protest assembling at the BBC in London later this week.
Prominent legal, cultural, and academic figures are among hundreds of British Jews calling on the police to reverse the decision to prevent the pro-Palestine rally outside the BBC on Jan. 18.
In a statement, the Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) group criticized the ban as bowing to "partisan campaigning aimed at preventing peaceful and lawful assembly."
The groups said that the police had faced "strong pressure from pro-Israel organisations" opposed to rally, claiming that Palestine solidarity protests pose a threat to synagogue congregations.
"This evidence-free claim is robustly contradicted by the large Jewish Bloc visible on every major demonstration since the genocide began in October 2023," the JVL statement noted on Monday.
Other members of the Jewish community opposing the police decision include Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, writer and director Adam Gantz, Professors Moshe Machover and Jacqueline Rose, writer/comedian Alexei Sayle, Holocaust survivors, including Stephen Kapos, and their descendants.
"As Jews, we are shocked at this brazen attempt to interfere with hard-won political freedoms by conjuring up an imaginary threat to Jewish freedom of worship," it added.
Saying that the Metropolitan Police exist to protect citizens from danger, "not (to) bow to partisan campaigning aimed at preventing peaceful and lawful assembly," the group called on the police to drop their objections and permit the demonstration on Saturday to assemble at the BBC.
Last week, the Metropolitan Police announced that they will impose the Public Order Act to prevent the pro-Palestine rally from forming outside the BBC on Saturday, because of its proximity to a synagogue.
However, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and coalition partners, condemned police attempts to stop an agreed march for Palestine.
The coalition, the organizers of the pro-Palestine marchers in the UK, noted that the ban came after the march route was confirmed with police nearly two months ago and, as agreed, was publicly announced Nov. 30.
They also called on the Metropolitan Police to reverse its decision, saying that "it is not acceptable in a democratic society that, in the face of an ongoing genocide in Gaza, people should be barred from protesting at the BBC."
Asked by Anadolu if they would reconsider the decision, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: "Our position remains unchanged and our statement still stands."
