EXPOSED: Palestine Solidarity Campaign planned first anti-Israeli protest on 7 October
Freedom of Information request reveals police were notified by phone at 12:50pm – as Hamas was rampaging through southern Israel – about plans for an anti-Israel demo
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s fanatical anti-Israel agenda has been laid bare by a Freedom of Information request that reveals it applied at lunchtime on 7 October 2023 – as Hamas was executing its savage attack on southern Israel – to hold an anti-Israel march in London the following weekend.
The FOI states: “The Metropolitan Police (MPS) was contacted on Saturday 7 October at approximately 12.50hrs via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest; the MPS committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
In a post to Twitter/X, Campaign Against Antisemitism noted the PSC request was made “prior to any Israeli action in Gaza. At that point, the only action in the region was Hamas killing Jews, and this was evidently motivation for the PSC to rush to activate people to rally ‘in solidarity’. Past senior figures in the group, who have also been involved in the marches over the past year, have previously met with Hamas leaders.”
They add that anti-Israel marches since the Hamas massacre sixteen months ago “have cost the UK taxpayer around £55 million, accounting for over 70,000 police officer shifts.”
The conditions put on the march by the Met Police were Section 12 of the Public Order Act 1986 ( not to deviate from a specified march route); and Section 14(3) of the Public Order Act 1986; that any person participating in the “London Palestine Protest” must not enter into a clearly marked exclusion zone across main parts of central London.
Gaza protests in London since 7 October 2023 have required 35,500 officer shifts and led to 5,200 rest days being cancelled; the government’s counter-extremism tsar has warned that London’s streets have become a “no-go zone for Jews” during pro-Palestine protests especially those marches taking place near Portland Place’s Central Synagogue on Shabbat.
A CST spokesperson told Jewish News: “It is utterly disgraceful that on the very day Hamas carried out a brutal terror attack and before Israel had even responded, PSC contacted the MPS to announce their intention to protest. It says everything about the cruel cynicism of PSC that, while Jews across Britain were reeling in grief and horror at the images of Israelis being murdered in their homes or taken as hostages, the PSC saw the same pictures and their first thought was to march against Israel.”
The PSC has not responded to Jewish News’ request for comment. The London mayor’s office is also yet to respond.
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