Metropolitan Police refuse to divert pro-Palestinian rally away from synagogue

The Metropolitan police have refused to divert the pro-Palestinian rally happening tomorrow away from a synagogue.

Jewish worshippers will therefore be forced to join part of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally as they leave Westminster Synagogue in Knightsbridge, London.

The pro-Palestinian march has been organised to commemorate the 78th Nakba Day – when Palestinians were removed en masse from their homes during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.

Protesters tomorrow are expected to walk near the Westminster Synagogue at around lunchtime, when worshippers are likely to be leaving the place of worship, The Times reports.

Jewish groups have called on the Met to use its powers to force organisers to alter their course or ban the march outright, but the force have so far declined to act.

Lord Leigh of Hurley, president of Westminster Synagogue, has written to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley urging him to reconsider, with the letter backed by 34 peers from across the political spectrum.

Dave Rich, from the Community Security Trust, a charity that works to protect Jewish communities, warned that the combination of the Nakba Day march and Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom rally would deter large numbers of people from entering central London, regardless of their background.

Russell Langer, from the Jewish Leadership Council, told MPs who were holding an antisemitism inquiry that "the route of the march essentially surrounds the synagogue, meaning that anybody leaving... would have to, for part of their route home, join the march to get home".

He had been told that some worshippers were planning not to attend the synagogue because of the protest, which he said is not the first time this has happened.

Mr Langer reinforced there should be no marches going past synagogues or impacting Jews' ability to attend their place of worship.

Karen Newman from the Board of Deputies of British Jews voiced similar concerns, stating Jewish people should not have to face such an issue.

She said: "They don’t want to have to run the gauntlet when they leave."

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Westminster Synagogue has previously been forced to cancel part of its programme to avoid clashing with pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police on occasion have had to escort congregation members back to Knightsbridge tube station.

Mr Langer said he knew of people who had kept their daughters at home rather than expose them to the protests.

Ms Newman, Mr Rich and Mr Langer all expressed shock at Scotland Yard's decision not to use their powers under Section 12 of the Public Order Act to alter the route of tomorrow's march, despite previously doing so on 21 of the 33 marches due to their proximity to synagogues.

The Met said this week it recognised the impact the marches had had on the Jewish community but had decided against imposing similar restrictions on this occasion.

A Met spokesman said: "We take those concerns seriously and have repeatedly used the full range of powers available to us to impose conditions on protests in order to limit the impact on Jewish Londoners.

"The Public Order Act only allows us to seek a ban if officers feel there is a risk of disorder so serious that it cannot be dealt with by the application of conditions as part of a wider policing plan."

The force added the concerns raised did not meet that threshold.

Westminster Synagogue's letter to Sir Mark Rowley reminded the commissioner of his own words following the Golders Green attack a fortnight ago, when he said British Jews were having to make "choices that no Briton should have to make".

The letter was co-signed by former cabinet minister Lord Pickles, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland and Labour peer Lord Shamash.

It urged Sir Mark to seek an immediate ban, warning worshippers feared becoming "proxy targets for those who hate Israel as well as those who use Israel as a cover for hating Jews".

Lord Walney, the Government's former adviser on political violence, said it seemed "perverse and highly risky" for the Met to refuse to use its powers, given the obvious risk of serious disorder with multiple groups converging on the capital simultaneously.

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