Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley has claimed that the Palestine national marches have “set out with an intent to march near synagogues”. The Palestine Coalition issued a letter to Mark Rowley to retract these ‘incomprehensible and defamatory’ remarks.
But instead of retracting, the Met responded directly to Stop the War officer John Rees on X and doubled down on the claims.
This is patently false and deliberately misleading.
Firstly, let’s be clear that Marble Arch and north of Park Lane are the same place. I can only assume that the Met have tried to cite this as two locations because a) they have no real evidence for their claims b) they want to give the impression that demonstrations assembling at Marble Arch have ever gone anywhere but south on Park Lane. This is important for their false narrative because both the synagogues ‘in the vicinity’ that they refer to are north of Marble Arch and the marches have never gone anywhere near them.
Out of 34 national demonstrations over two and a half years, there has been a grand total of 7 times the Palestine marches have assembled on Park Lane, of which only twice were the advertised starting points Marble Arch – every other time they have been clearly advertised as Hyde Park Corner or the south of Park Lane. At none of these 7 demonstrations has there ever been any recorded incident of anyone attending the marches going anywhere close to the synagogues.
Why have we assembled or tried to assemble on Park Lane? Is it because we deliberately want to be in ‘the vicinity’ of the synagogues north of Marble Arch? A clue might be found in the fact that so many big demonstrations historically have assembled there from the Chartists to the Suffragettes right up to the Together Against the Far Right demonstration in March. Could it have something to do with the logistics of assembling hundreds of thousands of people, ability for coaches to drop off, and the length of the route to politically significant places like Downing Street?
The same applies to the BBC where, out of 34 national demos, we have assembled at 3 times. It is a common assembly point for numerous demonstrations of all causes, always assembling south of the BBC – the other side of the Broadcasting House complex from the synagogue – and always marching south down Regent Street. Again, at none of these demonstrations has there been any recorded incident of protesters specifically going past the Central Synagogue or any sort of threatening behaviour towards it.
Of 34 national demos, we have assembled at:
The idea that we are seeking out synagogues to march next to is beyond absurd.
On the 7 September 2024 demonstration mentioned, we marched along Knightsbridge – the main road on the south side of Hyde Park leading to the Israeli embassy. Westminster Synagogue is on Rutland Gardens and our march did not ‘pass directly in front of it’ as claimed.
It can only be claimed that our march would have disrupted the bar mitzvah that day – more than any normal disruption a demonstration causes – if you can claim that our march is specifically hostile to Jewish people, which is what the Met is trying to do with precisely zero evidence.
What would have helped minimise disruption, on that day to the service in the synagogue or to any number of things that would be affected on the demo route, is if the Met stopped deliberately delaying approving demo routes until the last minute and thereby allowing people to plan.
On the back of these baseless accusations, the police have imposed a de facto ban on marching to the Israeli embassy since September 2024, and from the BBC since before 18 January 2025 on the spurious grounds of synagogues ‘in the vicinity’. It has meant that we are effectively banned from protesting the crimes of Israeli state in the most obvious place – outside their embassy – and against our state broadcaster’s complicity in providing cover for those crimes with its blatantly biased coverage.
The Met Police, backed by Starmer’s government, is systematically removing our basic right to protest and in the process, has deliberately manufactured fear among Jewish people by repeatedly claiming that our protests are hostile to them. Rowley’s defamatory comments are now part of an attempt to ban our marches altogether.
It is shameful. We reject these clear lies smearing our movement. And we must insist on protecting our basic right to protest. Join the Nakba demonstration on 16 May, Exhibition Road at 12pm.
