VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS: At long last, sanity prevails

The cancellation of this year's Al Quds Day march is a rare ray of light in what has been a very dark period for those who oppose extremism in this country

For the last few years, many members of the UK Jewish community, as well as many within the wider British public, have been desperate for our police and politicians to stand up to the hate marches which have so regularly proceeded through the nation’s capital. At long last, Whitehall and New Scotland Yard have responded.

Both the Metropolitan Police and the Home Secretary are to be commended for the decision to ban the annual Al Quds Day march, which is little more than a celebration of the Iranian regime and its hideous ‘axis of resistance’ which aims to destroy Israel. Given one of the regime’s proxies fired on sovereign British Territory just last week, to have allowed the march to go ahead would have been grotesque – but sadly, British Jews have long since become accustomed to such outrages being countenanced by the authorities. In a period where much of the world appears to have gone mad, any spasm of sanity cannot be taken for granted; we should be grateful when it manifests.

Those whining about how the march’s cancellation is some sort of travesty for democracy choose to ignore that a static demonstration will doubtless be countenanced. The route of the Al Quds Day march was a calculated one – starting at the Home Office, proceeding past Parliament and ending up outside Downing Street – as we wrote yesterday, an attempt by the Iranian regime, which created the concept of Al Quds Day – to flex its withering muscles. Impotent screeching in a cordoned off setting will neuter much of the swagger that the Khamenei-aligned protestors have built up in recent years. As with the Iranian regime itself, we can only hope that in the coming period we will be able to bid good riddance to the so-called ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission’, the organisers of this annual hate-fest, altogether.