The Metropolitan Police in London is set for an unparalleled security operation owing to a pro-Palestinian demonstration scheduled for today. The force expects Saturday’s march, which coincides with Armistice Day, to be the largest yet, and has warned of the possibility of violence erupting. Public order officers are set to be deployed in their thousands, as part of a massive security operation aimed at calming local communities. Officers on the ground have warned that the use of force is “likely”, as there are concerns around counter-marches by far-right groups.
Organisers of the demonstration, which will call for a ceasefire in Gaza, claim around 500,000 could march from Hyde Park to the US embassy in Vauxhall. However, an exclusion zone will be in place around the Cenotaph, with a dedicated 24-hour police presence already established there, preventing any pro-Palestinian protesters from those locations. Protestors can be arrested under sweeping measures announced by the Met.
Other security measures announced by the Met include preventing convoys of cars carrying pro-Palestinian protesters from reaching Jewish communities, working with British Transport Police to protect poppy sellers at train stations, and a “dispersal zone” in a busy central London area, preventing breakaway groups from gathering later in the day. Police are concerned that far-right groups and football hooligans might join the counter-protesters, thus exacerbating the hostility and violent clashes.
No major protest is scheduled to take place on Remembrance Sunday, and the build-up to the latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London has been dominated by a political row over Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments, accusing the police of applying “double standards”, in the Times newspaper. Critics of Braverman say she has undermined the police and potentially breached the ministerial code by not clearing her remarks with No 10. The prime minister has thus far stood behind his home secretary, but Downing Street is “still looking in to what happened with [Braverman’s] op-ed
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