‘Significant’ police presence planned for Nakba Day and Tommy Robinson-led demos

Police have pledged to have a “significant” presence in London later this month as a pro-Palestine march and Tommy Robinson-led demonstration are both due to take place on the same day.

The Metropolitan Police said they will impose conditions on routes and gathering points in order to “prevent serious disruption and serious disorder” on Saturday May 16.

A demonstration to mark Nakba Day, commemorating the 1948 displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel, is due to take place in the capital, while a “Unite the Kingdom, Unite the West” rally promoted by Tommy Robinson is also set to take place.

There have been calls to ban Pro-Palestine marches, with claims by Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, that it is currently “impossible” for such demos not to “incubate” antisemitism and urged a “moratorium” on them.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, speaking in the wake of Wednesday’s Golders Green stabbings in which two Jewish men were injured, called for “zero tolerance of antisemitism, with regard to hate marches”, saying these and other events can contribute to “a tone of antisemitism, which is in our country”.

Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones said it was “a fact” that the marches had seen “antisemitic activity” and indicated some had been “hijacked” by people wanting to sow division in the UK.

She told Times Radio: “We have seen chants of death, calls for global intifada, and that is wrong.”

Adding that people had “the right to protest the actions of Israel”, Ms Davies-Jones said: “I think it’s really, really important here that we recognise that not everybody on these marches is antisemitic.

“They have been hijacked by certain individuals who are seeking to cause division and hatred in our country, and are using these marches and are using these positions to cause fear and intimidation.”

London has seen regular pro-Palestine marches since the latest round of the conflict in Gaza began in 2023, with some demonstrators accused of antisemitic chanting or holding antisemitic signs.

Ms Davies-Jones told ITV’s Good Morning Britain anyone considering attending a demonstration should “check themselves”.

She said: “Look at what they’re doing, look at who you’re standing next to and what is being said, what they’re wearing.

“Because this is a responsibility on all of us to prevent the rise in division and hatred that we’re seeing in our country, and to prevent anyone from feeling unsafe, intimidated or alarmed.”

In a statement on Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer backed the prosecution of people chanting “globalise the intifada” during protests.

While police lack the power to ban demonstrations outright, they can place conditions on marches or, in extreme cases, restrict them to a static event.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was “concerned” about the scale of upcoming protests, adding his force was “looking hard at what conditions and powers we should use”.

Asked whether there should be a moratorium on the marches, Sir Mark told LBC it was a matter for Parliament.

In a statement on Friday, the Met said: “There will be a significant police presence in central London on Saturday May 16 where two large protests are due to take place. It is also the same day as the FA Cup final at Wembley.

“A protest organised under the banner ‘Unite the West’ will go from Kingsway to Whitehall via Aldwych and the Strand.

“A protest organised by the Palestine Coalition and Stand Up To Racism, to mark Nakba Day, will go from Exhibition Road to Waterloo Place via Brompton Road, Hyde Park Corner and Piccadilly.

“We will be using Public Order Act conditions to prevent serious disruption and serious disorder. These will govern form up points, the routes to be taken by each march and the area that any post-march assembly can take place in.”

The force said details of the conditions in place on each demonstration will be publicised in the week leading up to the events.