Met Police urge calm ahead of Al Quds Day march and counter protest

The annual Al Quds Day demonstration on Friday will see pro-Palestinian protesters march from the Home Office to Downing Street.

Protesters involved in a central London pro-Palestinian march on Friday must not “cross the line into criminality”, the Metropolitan Police has warned, as new powers to prevent “disruptive” protests come into force.

The Al Quds Day demonstration will see protestors assemble outside the Home Office in Marsham Street at 3pm and march towards Downing Street.

The annual rally – organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in support of Palestine – has been criticised in the past after participants flew flags of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and brandished signs with allegedly antisemitic messages.

Pro-Palestinian supporters take part in a rally in central London, to commemorate Al-Quds Day, a day that has been marked globally since being inaugurated in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini who asked for the last Friday in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to be set aside as a day for uniting against Israel and showing support for Palestinians. — The Al Quds Day demonstration has been criticised in the past after participants flew the flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah (Rick Findler/PA)

At the same time, a pro-Israel counter-protest is to be held in Parliament Square. The pro-Palestinian march will pass by on its route to Whitehall.

The demonstrations come on the same day new public order powers to prevent “serious disruption” at protests come into force.

Serious Disruption Prevention Orders are court orders that can impose restraints on individuals who have committed protest-related offences on at least two occasions, potentially banning them from being in certain areas or being with protest groups at given times.

Israel-Hamas conflict — The Met said they cannot police ‘taste and decency’ but will take action if the ‘line into criminality is crossed’ (Yui Mok/PA)

He added the Met had been in contact with the organisers of both demonstrations to ensure their events “remain within the law”, adding that the force will “police without fear or favour right up to the line of the law”.

The Met says it has imposed conditions under the Public Order Act, restricting the Al Quds Day march to a pre-agreed route and confining both protests to designated areas.

In a joint letter to Met Commissioner Mark Rowley on Wednesday, the IHRC and other pro-Palestinian groups accused the Met of “politically-driven policing”, saying the force had “regularly abused its legal powers to harass pro-Palestine protesters”.

On Saturday, the Met made four arrests, including one on suspicion of a terrorism-related offence, at a pro-Palestinian protest in central London, which saw more than 200,000 people take part.