British police arrest over 400 anti-Israel protesters in London

Police in London arrested 442 anti-Israel activists on Saturday who were demonstrating for the proscribed terror group Palestine Action. The illegal demonstration in the British capital went ahead despite warnings from the police. The arrest of the activists happened merely days after an Islamist terrorist, Jihad al-Shamie, murdered the Jewish worshippers Melvin Cravitz (66) and Adrian Daulby (53) at a synagogue in Manchester during Yom Kippur.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for calm and respect for the threatened Jewish community in the United Kingdom.

“I urge anyone thinking about protesting this weekend to recognize and respect the grief of British Jews,” Starmer wrote on 𝕏.

“This is a moment of mourning. It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain. It is a time to stand together,” the British prime minister added.

Unsurprisingly, the anti-Israel protesters opposed the British premier.

“I’m disgusted by the police actually, they shouldn’t be arresting non-violent protesters here,” the protester Angie Zelter told the media. “We have a right to protest and Palestine Action is not a violent organization, should never have been proscribed in the first place,” the protester argued.

However, the protester’s claim is not supported by facts on the ground. The British government announced in June that it would outlaw the anti-Israel Palestine Action group after members of the radical organization had damaged British military aircraft.

The British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the vandalism as "disgraceful."

"The UK's defense enterprise is vital to the nation's national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk," Cooper announced. She also stressed that the group had also targeted "financial firms, charities, universities and government buildings."

"Its activities meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000," Cooper stated.

The organization Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine organized a smaller demonstration on Saturday in Manchester, which reportedly attracted some 100 people. There were no reported arrests in Manchester.

Greater Manchester Police Chief Sir Stephen Watson urged the organizers to reconsider whether “this is really the right time,” referring to the recent lethal terrorist attack against a synagogue in the city.

“You could do the responsible and sensitive thing and refrain, on this occasion, from protesting in a manner which is likely to add to the trauma currently being experienced by our Jewish community,” Watson stated.

Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments have increased dramatically in the United Kingdom since the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis in 2023.

The Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who heads the Orthodox Judaism in Great Britain, condemned the attack on the Manchester synagogue and stressed that it was the result of “an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred” on the streets and online.

Like in many other Western nations, radicalized Muslims and far-left activists have played a central role in the current rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK.

However, a British report in July warned that antisemitism has become increasingly common among the middle classes in the country.

Lord John Mann, the government’s advisor on antisemitism, and former Defense Secretary Penny Mordaunt, who co-authored the report, warned that Jews in the UK increasingly face growing prejudice “in professional life, in cultural spaces, and in public services,” and consequently feel unappreciated and marginalized in British society.

“We are not Jews, and we come from opposing ends of the political spectrum (Mordaunt from the Conservative Party, Mann from Labour), and we both understood that if our Jewish community is facing discrimination, that’s a failure of our society,” the report warned.