A major pro-Palestinian protest has been held on Armistice Day in London, despite opposition by the UK government amid tight police presence, as the Israeli regime continues its genocide of the Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the British capital city on Saturday to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people, calling on the Israelis for a humanitarian ceasefire as the Apartheid Zionist occupation forces continue to bomb and shell defenseless Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
Metropolitan Police Service announced on Friday that police presence would be “far greater and more complex than we’ve delivered before” amid concerns that certain groups may cause disruption and that some far-right elements may seek to ruin the march.
It added that throughout Saturday and Sunday, almost 2,000 officers from the Met and other UK forces will be on duty across central London as part of a major policing operation and officers would draw on “an extensive set of powers to prevent any disruption whatsoever,” with tight controls put on the movements of protesters.
The speakers at the event include Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader; actors Juliet Stevenson and Maxine Peake; Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK; and others, who will deliver their speeches from a special stage.
The Guardian on Friday cited one of the organizers of the march from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) as saying that he expected people to be traveling from all over the UK to march from Park Lane toward the US Embassy in southwest London.
Ben Jamal, the director of the PSC, said, “We think it is going to be huge. More than 500,000 people are expected to converge on London, making it one of the largest political marches in British history,” a statement released by the PSC said.
The PSC said it “reasserts its concerns at the disgraceful remarks by [British} Home Secretary Suella Braverman,” as “she has sought to delegitimize the call for a cease-fire, which is supported by the vast majority of the British public, smear those marching for peace and stir up public unrest.”
Jamal said, “Contrary to the disgraceful rhetoric of Suella Braverman and other political leaders, hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life, will come to London to march for peace, for a cease-fire, and for the rights of the Palestinian people to be respected.”
In the meantime, the Apartheid Zionist Israeli regime forces have cut off water, food, medicine, and electricity to Gaza while pounding the blockaded Palestinians from the air, ground, and sea, relentlessly targeting homes, hospitals, and places of worship in the past 36 days.
According to Palestinian health officials, at least 11,078 Gazans have been killed, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women in the Israeli attacks, launched after an operation by Hamas in retaliation to the Apartheid Zionist Israeli regime forces’ atrocities.
