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Hundreds of protesters in London and Manchester defied appeals to call off pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Saturday in the wake of a fatal attack on a synagogue.
The London march, organised by the group Defend Our Juries, led to 442 arrests as police detained demonstrators holding placards supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action.
Politicians from several parties had called on organisers to cancel the protests to free up police resources following Thursday’s attack on a synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, which left two Jewish people dead and three in hospital. Police shot dead the attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie, while one of those killed and one of the injured were also hit by police bullets.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was “un-British” for demonstrations to go ahead following the Manchester assault.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had also called for the demonstrations to be cancelled. On Saturday, after visiting the scene of Thursday’s attack, Badenoch wrote on X of her “rage” about the murders and called the protests “brazen antisemitism”.
The marches took place ahead of Tuesday’s second anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza.
At the London protest, a crowd that organisers said numbered more than 1,000 gathered in Trafalgar Square at 1pm. When police officers arrested protesters holding placards that supported Palestine Action, members of the crowd shouted: “Shame on you!”
Defend Our Juries had argued that, if the police wanted to free up their resources, they could simply not arrest people for supporting Palestine Action, which is an offence under the Terrorism Act.
The Metropolitan Police said that by 6,30pm, more than four hundred people had been arrested in the square and another six had been detained after a pro-Palestine banner was unfurled on Westminster Bridge.
In Manchester, about 100 people attended the demonstration organised by Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine to mark what organisers called “two years of genocide in Gaza”. The group, which was flanked by police, marched across the city centre, chanting: “Stop the genocide; end apartheid”.
Police separated the pro-Palestinian demonstrators from a small separate group variously holding a Union Jack, Israeli flag and clothing bearing the message “Make Britain Great Again”.
The march passed off without incident, with one speaker saying that police in London should learn from their counterparts in Manchester that pro-Palestine protests were about “peace and justice”.
Police in Greater Manchester had, as in London, asked that people refrain from attending the protest out of respect for the city’s Jewish community.
Counter Terrorism Police North-West said on Saturday that they had been granted warrants of further detention for four of the six people arrested after Thursday’s attack on suspicion of commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism. They announced late on Saturday that the other two people arrested had been released with no further action.
Repeated London protests over the ban on Palestine Action introduced in June have led to thousands of arrests, putting severe strain on the capital’s court system.
The Home Office has insisted it was right to proscribe the group, citing the group’s direct action against several targets, including damaging Royal Air Force aircraft at the Brize Norton air base.