A protest will shut off a busy Central London street this weekend (Saturday, January 18). However, the Metropolitan Police Service has issued a stern warning to campaigners ahead of the protest.
The Met had previously enforced a Public Order Act to prevent the Palestine Solidarity Campaign from forming up ‘in the vicinity of a synagogue’ on Saturday. The march was originally set to form up in Portland Place outside the BBC from noon and march to Whitehall.
Last Thursday, the Met imposed a Public Order Act to apply conditions to the protest due to its vicinity to a synagogue on the day Shabbat is celebrated. However, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has argued that the closest synagogue to the BBC isn’t on their march route and that the order is being used to ‘prevent a protest at the BBC’.
Now, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has announced an altered route that will begin at Whitehall and finish outside the BBC building at Portland Place. A spokesperson for the group announced the new route today: “Contrary to the excuse offered by the police—that they have taken this action to prevent potential disruption to a nearby synagogue—the closest synagogue to the BBC is not even on the route of the march.
“As the Metropolitan Police have acknowledged, there has never been any threat to a synagogue attached to any of our marches. In fact, every march has been joined by thousands of Jewish people – many in an organised Jewish bloc.”
However, the Metropolitan Police Service has now issued a stern warning that the new protest route is ‘not one we have agreed to, and it breaches the conditions that have been imposed under the Public Order Act’.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Service said: “Our assessment is that a demonstration ending and dispersing from the same place would have the same impact.
“Officers will be meeting with the PSC and other organisers tomorrow to discuss the matter further. We are aware that our decision to impose conditions has been presented by some as us banning a demonstration at the BBC.
“This is not accurate. We recognise why the organisers wish to protest at the BBC and we have offered to work with them in considering alternative days of the week that wouldn’t result in disruption to Shabbat services.”
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