{"id":37975,"date":"2026-05-16T11:37:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/37975\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:37:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:37:33","slug":"rival-pro-palestine-far-right-protests-in-london-as-4000-police-deployed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/37975\/","title":{"rendered":"Rival pro-Palestine, far-right protests in London as 4,000 police deployed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Two major protests are taking place on Saturday in London, with the Metropolitan Police warning it may be one of its busiest days in recent years.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Tens of thousands of people are expected to march for Unite the Kingdom, an event arranged by far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, and the annual pro-Palestine Nakba Day march.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">London\u2019s Metropolitan Police is drafting more than 4,000 officers to police the two events, a scale of operation it said was \u201cunprecedented in recent years,\u201d over fears that far-right demonstrators may clash with pro-Palestine marchers if not kept apart. Officers are being equipped with riot gear and will have drones to scan for suspects, as well as the use of live facial recognition cameras.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The protests come in the wake of growing concern over rising levels of hate crime, in particular antisemitism, in Britain. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said earlier this month that there may be a case for banning some protests, and people chanting slogans such as \u201cglobalise the intifada,\u201d based on an Arabic word for uprising, should be prosecuted. He pledged to use the \u201cfull power of the state\u201d to crack down on antisemitism in the wake of an April stabbing in North London where two Jewish men were hospitalised.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Labour MP John McDonnell (second from right) holds a Nakba Day protest letter outside Scotland Yard in London, Britain, on April 15. Members of the Palestine Coalition, supported by MPs and public figures, handed in a letter demanding the right to protest on Nakba Day. Photo: EPA\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/65fd6d9d-0875-4efd-8d94-21e3601d5a03_34ae83db.jpg\" title=\"Labour MP John McDonnell (second from right) holds a Nakba Day protest letter outside Scotland Yard in London, Britain, on April 15. Members of the Palestine Coalition, supported by MPs and public figures, handed in a letter demanding the right to protest on Nakba Day. Photo: EPA\"\/>Labour MP John McDonnell (second from right) holds a Nakba Day protest letter outside Scotland Yard in London, Britain, on April 15. Members of the Palestine Coalition, supported by MPs and public figures, handed in a letter demanding the right to protest on Nakba Day. Photo: EPA<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cFears in Jewish communities are particularly heightened, but we have also seen increased concerns more broadly, including in Muslim communities,\u201d the Met\u2019s Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman said this week. \u201cTaken together, these factors give us significant cause for concern heading into the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two major protests are taking place on Saturday in London, with the Metropolitan Police warning it may be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[93,13,173,22,2297,19782,3403,94,27,3551,33,1140,1723,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-37975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-far-right","12":"tag-hate-speech","13":"tag-intifada","14":"tag-jewish","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-muslim","18":"tag-police","19":"tag-terrorism","20":"tag-tommy-robinson","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116584057596714406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}