Palestinian-supporting protests called 'un-British' in the wake of Manchester synagogue attack, UK home secretary asserts
News Agency
The Home Secretary conveyed dismay that pro-Palestinian demonstrations continued on Thursday following the terrorist incident that claimed two lives outside a synagogue in the city of Manchester.
The top security official also urged demonstrators to "pause" from plans to organize marches in the coming days.
"I believe that carrying on in this manner does feel un-British, it feels wrong," she remarked regarding protests planned for this weekend.
Protesters in downtown London demonstrating against the Israeli navy stopping a flotilla transporting humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip confronted with law enforcement near the Prime Minister's residence on Thursday evening.
Large crowds holding flags of Palestine and signs could be seen on Whitehall throughout the night.
The Metropolitan Police reported that 40 people had been detained. A half-dozen of those arrested were charged with assaults on police officers.
"It is important to establish separation between what is happening in the Middle East and situations developing at in our country," the minister told a television interview on Friday morning.
"I would say to individuals who are intending to go on a protest is to reconsider briefly for a short while, and imagine if you had lost a family member to a terror attack in this nation," she emphasized.
There were "robust" measures to defend the freedom to protest, she stated, but they could be overridden on the recommendation of the police.
"I can follow guidance from the law enforcement, if they were to inform me there was an inability to manage and to control the demonstrations, then there are legal measures that are available," she explained.
Jewish community leaders voice apprehensions
Britain's Chief Rabbi remarked that many people of the Jewish population questioned why protests in solidarity of Palestinian advocacy groups had been authorized to proceed.
The movement was banned as a terror group in July. At multiple protests after that, numerous individuals have been taken into custody for demonstrating backing for the group, which has secured permission to dispute the restriction.
"Some of them contain outright antisemitism, outright backing for Hamas. Not everyone involved, however there is a significant amount of such content, which clearly poses dangerous to many within our society," the religious leader remarked.
"It's impossible to disconnect the speech on our streets, the conduct of people in this manner, and what inevitably results, which was the recent terror incident."
Additionally, he called on the government "repeatedly", to "get a grip on these protests, they are risky."