Pro-Palestine protests cost Met police over £32m as thousands set to march across London again this weekend
9 March 2024, 10:44
The Met has spent over £32million policing pro-Palestine marches since October 7, with thousands set to march across London again this weekend.
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A Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march is taking place in central London on Saturday - marking the fifth major demonstration of the year so far.
The group said it was expecting "hundreds of thousands of people" to march from Hyde Park Corner to the US Embassy.
It comes after the Met revealed that it had spent £32.3 million on policing for such protests - with it putting in place a "robust policing plan" for yet another "busy weekend in the capital".
The marches have required 35,464 officer shifts and more than 5,200 officer rest days to be cancelled.
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Commander Karen Findlay, who will oversee policing across London on Saturday, said people committing criminal offences during protests would be dealt with "decisively and swiftly".
In a statement, Ms Findlay said: "We are clearly operating in a context where we understand our Jewish and Muslim communities continue to be highly concerned about antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crime and their own sense of safety in London.
"We recognise the very real anxiety and fear of individuals who are worried about perceived or actual threats they are subject to.
"Our role remains to police impartially, being robust in tackling hate crime and extremism, and ensuring protest is managed within the law.
"We have to police to the law as it is, not as others would wish it to be."
It comes as the government's counter-extremism tsar warned that London's streets have become a "no-go zone for Jews" during pro-Palestine protests.
PSC director Ben Jamal said: "Despite further attempts by government ministers, including the Prime Minister, and Lord Walney, to demonise those protesting and suppress calls for a ceasefire, hundreds of thousands will again be taking to the streets, calling for an end to Israel's genocidal war on the Palestinian people.
"We will continue to protest until a ceasefire is called, and until there is an end to all UK complicity with Israel's decades long oppression of the Palestinian people."
The organiser of a counter-protest this weekend said such demonstrations mean "Jews can't go out in the street".
Itai Galmudy said that pro-Palestine demonstrations had created "no-go zones for Jewish people" in the capital and "ballooned into anti-Israeli hate marches".
He said he organised Saturday afternoon's counter-protest with a "collective of people that share the same frustrations" with the pro-Palestine marches.
He said he was "very concerned" that counter-protesters might encounter violence, adding that it would "probably reflect" in the number of people attending the demonstration in Victoria, central London.
Mr Galmudy said he was expecting "50-100 people maximum" to attend the counter-protest, adding "people are afraid and not everybody's willing to take the risk".
He said: "We know that those (pro-Palestine) protests are not as peaceful as some people tell us they are.
"I'm concerned for this country because letting the mob run a country is not the way. There is a law and we should all be held accountable to it."
