Pro-Palestinian marches could be temporarily banned in Britain after a series of anti-Semitic attacks. This was stated by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer in an interview with the BBC.
In response to a question on whether certain demonstrations should be banned, the Prime Minister stressed the need to “explore what other powers“ the Cabinet might have”. Starmer said that “there are grounds” for banning protests in a number of cases. “I think it is time to look at the protests as a whole and their cumulative impact. Many people in the Jewish community have told me about the repetitive nature of the marches. I acknowledge that,” he noted.
The prime minister also said that chanting provocative slogans during protests should be criminalized. He cited calls for the “globalization of the intifada” (the Palestinian uprising) as an example. “If you’re at a march or a protest where people are calling for a global intifada, you have to stop and ask yourself: “Why am I not condemning this?” “What am I doing at a march where they’re shouting these things?” Starmer said. But he added that people had a right to be “deeply concerned” about the from events in the Middle East, especially in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the United Jewish Community of Great Britain and the British Commonwealth proposed a temporary ban on pro-Palestinian marches following the terrorist attack in North London. The Conservative Party and the right-wing populist party Reform UK have called on the Labour government to take a tougher stance on the demonstrations. Meanwhile, the Greens and the left-wing Your Party have said that anti-Semitic attacks should not be used as a basis for restricting civil liberties.
On April 29, two passers-by were stabbed in Golders Green, a North London neighborhood home to a large Jewish community. Two men, aged 34 and 76, were injured in the incident. They are in hospital and are in a stable condition. The attacker was a Somali-born British national. The man was arrested at the scene. The incident was classified as a terrorist attack. On April 30, British security services raised the terrorist threat level in the United Kingdom from “significant“ to “severe“ (level 4 out of five). This means that terrorist attacks in the country are “very likely“ within the next six months.
Since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, London has seen a number of attacks on Jewish organisations. These include the arson of ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer organisation Hatzalah, and attempts to set fire to the building of the Jewish Futures charity and two synagogues.