LONDON: The UK prime minister’s threat to ban some protests against Israel’s actions in the Middle East has been condemned as an attack on free speech.
A range of civil society, anti-war and rights groups criticized Keir Starmer after he said “there are instances” in which he would propose stopping pro-Palestine protests entirely.
He told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program on Saturday that he wants “tougher action” against phrases used at the protests, including calls to “globalize the intifada.”
Starmer’s comments “strike at the root of free assembly and free speech” in Britain, said John Rees, co-founder and national officer of the Stop the War Coalition, which has hosted large pro-Palestine demonstrations in London.
Rees told Sky News: “I don’t think that people in this country are minded to say: ‘Oh, well, we did it once, and that didn’t work. So, we’re now going home.’
“As long as the wars continue, as long as the killing continues, people will want to say to this government, you’re complicit in this, and you should stop.
“And will want to say to the Israeli government, you’re setting the Middle East on fire. It’s now impacting not only the lives of Palestinians, but the livelihood of people around the globe and you should stop.”
Out of millions of people who have attended the demonstrations that have taken place weekly since 2023, a “minuscule number” of arrests have been made for offenses such as support for Hamas, Rees said.
When stewards at the marches see “inappropriate slogans,” they “ask people not to use them and, by and large, they comply.”
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch demanded that pro-Palestine marches be banned altogether,” claiming they “are used as a cover for promoting violence and intimidation against Jews.”
Rees said: “We have to be absolutely clear here: There is no threat whatsoever to the Jewish community from these marches.
“In fact, they are attended by thousands of Jewish people who disapprove of the actions of the government and disapprove of the actions of the state of Israel.”
Starmer’s attempt to tie pro-Palestine marches to attacks on Jewish people “acts as if there’s a causal relationship” between the two, when no such link exists, Rees added, addressing Wednesday’s attack on two Jewish men in London by Essa Suleiman, who earlier in the day had also attacked an acquaintance.
“These kinds of individuals are not attached to the Palestine movement. They are not attached to the marches,” Rees said.
“There’s no evidence that they’ve ever seen a march, let alone been on one, or that the organizers would for a second condone it. So, this connection is completely fallacious.”
Meanwhile, Lord Mann, an independent adviser to the government on antisemitism, told The Independent: “There are multiple small anti-Israel (or similar) protests every week. Usually involving a tiny number of people.
“If they are not calling for violence … then it is unconscionable in a democracy that any such concept (of restrictions) could be acted upon.
“The safety and security of the Jewish community requires effective strong leadership — not gestures.”
Shami Chakrabarti, a Labour peer and former director of rights group Liberty, said: “It’s perfectly reasonable for political leaders to urge sensitivity and restraint around protests in the wake of terrorist violence and the fear it breeds.
“But it is quite another thing to equate protest with violence or to clamp down on peaceful dissent even further.
“I urge the government to lead by example and demonstrate the balanced judgment they recommend to others.”
Defend Our Juries, which has organized protests against the proscription of Palestine Action, responded to Starmer’s comments on X, saying: “End the genocide, not our freedoms to oppose it.”
