The Met’s political policing must end Statement

On Saturday, 250,000 people took to the streets of London — to mark 78 years since the beginning of the Nakba, and to stand firm against the resurgence of the far right in our country. They came peacefully and with clarity about what this moment demands.

The organisers would like to protest again in the strongest possible terms that Metropolitan police chief Mark Rowley used his platform in the run up to the march to peddle deliberate falsehoods about our movement and our protests, including claiming we deliberately intend to march towards synagogues, which he knows is a lie.

This was an attempt to delegitimise, to intimidate, and to shrink the space available to those who march for Palestine and against racism.

While that pressure was applied to us and we were refused our preferred route, incredibly, the Metropolitan Police permitted a far-right hate rally in central London — a rally organised by known fascist Stephen Yaxley Lennon, that drew smaller numbers, that platformed open Islamophobia and included language and performances inciting racial hatred.

The Metropolitan police have not commented on these obvious and documented hate crimes. Instead, they have continued to circulate figures they had quoted before the march, falsely claiming that the far right demo was the bigger of the two.

Once again we call on Mark Rowley and the Metropolitan police to publicly retract their lies, to desist in their political campaigning against us and to take anti-Muslim hate crime seriously.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Palestinian Forum in Britain

Friends of Al-Aqsa

Stop the War Coalition

Muslim Association of Britain

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Stand Up to Racism