Thousands of protesters have gathered in Trafalgar Square demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Chants – including the contentious “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as well as “Ceasefire now!” – rang out, as some protesters climbed on top of bus stops and let off green and red flares.
Before the rally, hundreds of protesters staged a sit-in at Oxford Circus, bringing the busy shopping street to a standstill for a short time. The British Transport police said it was “actively engaging” with protesters at a pro-Palestinian sit-in at Charing Cross station.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, the BTP said the sit-in protest had stopped some passengers from accessing trains and platforms at the London station, with officers in attendance to ensure the safety of those using the station.
A total of 29 arrests have been made so far on Saturday after pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations across central London, according to the Metropolitan police.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered outside the BBC’s London headquarters on Saturday morning, accusing the broadcaster of bias in its coverage of Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza. “BBC, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” the crowds chanted.
The Trafalgar Square rally started at 2.30pm, with protesters arriving in central London from smaller local demonstrations organised across the capital.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has previously called the “from the river to the sea” slogan antisemitic and claimed that it is “widely understood” to call for the destruction of Israel.
One protester was seen carrying a banner which read “Let’s keep the world clean” with a picture of an Israeli flag being thrown into a bin. A similar banner displayed at a protest in Warsaw was condemned by the Israeli ambassador to Poland as “blatant antisemitism”.
Outside St Martin-in-the-Fields church across the road from the square, protesters held signs spelling out “Genocide Starmer” in an apparent reference to the Labour leader’s refusal to back calls for a ceasefire in the conflict.
The Labour party has been fairly divided on the issue, with about a quarter of its MPs publicly calling for a ceasefire and hundreds of councillors signing a letter in support of a ceasefire despite Starmer’s position.
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, has written in the Observer warning that the “siege conditions” in place in Gaza are unacceptable and calling for an immediate humanitarian pause to the fighting, in the party’s strongest intervention over Israel’s intensifying war against Hamas.
One protester, Toria Bennett, 71, said she usually voted Labour, but found Starmer’s position on a ceasefire “disturbing”.
“I feel sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone and politicians these days are always frightened to do it because they’ll upset certain members of the voting public,” she said.
Another protester, Max, 24, said the Labour leader’s refusal was “not commonsensical” and said he no longer supported the party based on its position.
Organisers said Saturday’s rally was “building for a national march” on Armistice Day next Saturday.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, has called the planned 11 November march “disrespectful” and warned the Cenotaph could be desecrated, while Braverman labelled the protests as “hate marches”.
The Metropolitan police and protest organisers said next week’s protest will avoid Whitehall.
Waving a Palestine flag outside the National Gallery on Saturday, Dr Suheib Kmeil, a 64-year-old British-Palestinian originally from Gaza, said he was aware of the home secretary’s comments.
“When we do the marches we try to gain the sympathy of the public,” he said. “If this is going to work the other way round, I’ve been saying to my family and friends, we should be considering a silent march to sympathise with the UK population. A silent march would be appropriate, I believe.”
Carrying a placard that read “Jews 4 justice for Palestine”, Louie Adams, 31, said: “I’ve never seen any hate, I’ve seen anger towards Israel – fair enough, but it’s not a hate march, it’s a standard protest.”
As rain began to fall at about 4pm, crowds began to move away from Trafalgar Square, with police forming lines preventing people from returning.
Down Whitehall, a small number of counter-demonstrators stood next to the Cenotaph, some in military uniform.
The counter-protesters shouted at pro-Palestine demonstrators who were leaving Trafalgar Square, calling them “cowards” as they walked by.
One counter-protester, who declined to give his name, called next week’s planned march “disgusting”. “One day – don’t do it,” he said. “People fought for them, for us to have freedom of speech. You can have a protest but not on that day.”
