Prominent actors, anti-war campaigners and British Palestinians have gathered outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London to demand the right to protest for the annual Nakba Day commemorations.
Actor Khalid Abdalla and actress Juliet Stevenson, Stop the War leader Lindsay German and veteran Labour MP John McDonnell were among those who presented a letter to the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley at New Scotland Yard.
Organisers say the Met has refused permission for the Palestine solidarity movement to march on its proposed route through London on May 16 to mark Nakba Day. The procession would have started at Victoria Embankment and followed a path across Westminster Bridge to Waterloo, a route participants had marched three times before. Such marches typically involve groups such as the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, the Palestinian Coalition, and Stop the War.
But this year, they have learnt that far-right activist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was given permission to march through the “whole of the political centre” of London for his Unite the Kingdom rally.
Stevenson, the award-winning actress, has been a prominent campaigner for the Palestinian cause and has hosted numerous fund-raisers for healthcare workers in Gaza. She told The National there has been a march in London to mark Nakba Day for many years.
She urged more people to pay attention to the issue. “This may not seem important to many people but it is very important. It gives the far-right … the centre of London in which to protest,” she said.
She was defiant that she would go ahead with a march. “I will march on Nakba Day, of course,” she said – but recalled how colleagues at the National Theatre felt threatened by members of the Unite the Kingdom rally last year and had to be escorted into the building by police for their safety.
Chris Nineham of the Stop the War coalition described the decision as “unprecedented” as he prepared to deliver the letter. “Palestine national day has been relegated in favour of a far-right demonstration that is not just Islamophobic, but actually anti-Semitic,” he said.
A Palestinian flag was destroyed on stage at the last Unite the Kingdom rally in September, which attracted more than 150,000 people.
Mr Nineham believes the police would have been aware the Unite the Kingdom event would clash with the Nakba Day march. “They should have known because we do it every year,” he told The National.
He added that he “had to assume” that Mr Robinson, who was recently invited by ministers to Israel, had deliberately chosen Nakba Day to organise his event.
The Met Police has been contacted for comment.
The letter condemning the decision has been signed by 180 public figures including musicians Annie Lennox and Paloma Faith, and actress Miriam Margolyes.
It comes as parliament voted in favour of an amendment that would require the Met to penalise protests for “cumulative disruption” in its Crimes and Policing Bill.
But campaigners say this could be used unfairly to limit the scope of rallies such as marches for Palestine. Mr McDonnell believes the amendment was “the government sending a message to the police themselves”, he said as he prepared to hand over the letter.
Stevenson believes it will directly target the Palestine marches, which take place every two weeks. “They [the police] will have the power to ban those marches,” she said.
Abdallah said the Nakba Day march would have been the first in London since a ceasefire was declared in Gaza, making it the first Nakba in which “the genocide is commemorated”.
“For this particular Nakba, to be faced with the decision where the Metropolitan Police favour the far right, at a moment in which our civil rights are being taken away from us, should scare everyone,” he said. “Throughout our entire lives we have been told to watch out for the rise of fascism, the rise of the right wing, for genocide.”
They said a Nakba Day march took place without issue every year and the organisers had informed the police of their plans in December. They also fear that people who do go ahead and march could be targeted by Mr Robinson’s followers.
“The far right has targeted the Palestine movement before,” the letter said. “They have done so aggressively, with verbal and physical violence directed at the movement and the police.
“We call on the police to immediately reverse this shameful decision. We call on everyone of good conscience to join us for Palestine on May 16. We will march.”
At the last Unite the Kingdom rally in September, tech tycoon Elon Musk made a speech via video link condemning the UK government and telling protesters to “fight back or die”. Twenty-three participants were arrested, as well as one counter-protester.
The Met Police has been under pressure to curtail or end the fortnightly marches in London for Palestine, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people, since they began in opposition to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in 2023.
Two organisers of the marches, Ben Jamal and Mr Nineham, were found guilty this month of breaching conditions imposed ahead of a protest last year.
The Met had confined the protest to Whitehall in central London, and Mr Jamal and Mr Nineham were arrested after leading marchers to Trafalgar Square.
