Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in London on Saturday in an outpouring of opposition at Israel\u2019s intensifying genocide in Gaza. Organisers put the attendance at over 500,000 people.<\/p>\n
The march crossing Westminster Bridge on its way through central London, May 17, 2025<\/p>\n
Setting off from the Embankment, the march crossed Westminster Bridge, adjacent to Parliament, and Waterloo Bridge before arriving on Whitehall where a rally was held near Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s Downing Street residence.<\/p>\n
The march, the 27th held in London since Israel\u2019s genocide began 19 months ago in October 2023, was one of the largest yet. It was held during the week marking the 77th anniversary of the Nakba\u2014the brutal ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Palestinians from the newly declared State of Israel.<\/p>\n
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Tens of thousands also attended a protest on Saturday in Paris.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations took place following the announcement earlier this month that Israel would launch a full military occupation of the entire Gaza Strip and impose the mass internment of the population in concentration camps under armed guard, as a prelude to forced marches through the desert or deportation by sea. This is backed by US President Donald Trump, who concluded his Middle East tour in Qatar Thursday by reiterating his administration\u2019s plan to annex the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defence Forces in the last week.<\/p>\n
The London protests have demonstrated the gulf between the sentiment of those who attend and the politics of the march organisers, who insist that the only way forward is to make moral appeals to the political establishment to end their complicity with genocide and break ties with the Israeli state.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the Stop the War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) made great play of the \u201cbreakthrough\u201d achieved the previous day at the Annual General Meeting of the Co-Op supermarket chain, where a motion was passed to \u201ccease all trading with Israel\u201d. <\/p>\n
Speakers on the platform said this meant that everyone had to work to ensure that the policy became the policy of all the supermarket chains and other high street stores. However, even in its X thread announcing this as \u201ca big victory for our movement,\u201d the PSC had to note that \u201cThe Co-Op board has said the motion is merely \u2018advisory\u2019\u201d. <\/p>\n
Also cited were editorials in leading newspapers, including the Financial Times, calling for a negotiated end to Israel\u2019s war on Gaza as evidence that \u201cthe cracks are showing\u201d as \u201cBritish complicity in Israel\u2019s genocide is slowly but surely being ended\u201d. <\/p>\n Stop the War Convenor Lindsey German\u2014of the pseudo-left Counterfire group\u2014told the rally , \u201cNow it\u2019s clear, even to some of the people who supported Israel, how absolutely appalling Netanyahu\u2019s treatment [of the Palestinians] is. So we\u2019ve even had Tory MPs, we\u2019ve even had people from the Board of Deputies [of British Jews], we\u2019ve even had the Spanish prime minister, and we\u2019ve even had backbench Labour MPs acknowledging that Israel has gone much, much further than they expected them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n She ended with an appeal to the political criminals in Downing Street and the White House to stop backing Israel, declaring, \u201cWe say to Keir Starmer and Donald Trump, you can\u2019t supply food for the starving children of Gaza but you can supply bombs every single day. You can supply F-35s. Enough of this. Stop arming Israel. Solidarity with the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n What is being concealed by German is that Starmer acts with the unchallenged authority of the Labour government in backing genocide, alongside Trump.<\/p>\n The overwhelming majority of Labour\u2019s 400-plus MPs remain rock solid behind the genocide. Several speakers alluded to research published this month showing that just in its first three months in power (from July 2024), more military equipment was licensed for export to Israel under Labour than the Tories approved in the previous three years.<\/p>\n This week, Starmer government lawyers even argued in the High Court that no genocide is taking place in Gaza in opposition to a legal challenge to the UK continuing to sell F-35 fighter parts and components to a global pool that are used by Israel in Gaza.<\/p>\n Moreover, the fact that there is no real backbench revolt of Labour MPs was underscored by the absence of any current Labour MP on Saturday\u2019s platform. <\/p>\n MP Apsana Begum currently sits as an Independent in Parliament, almost 10 months after having the Labour whip withdrawn and being suspended from the party for voting against the Starmer government\u2019s policy to retain the punitive two child benefit cap. The main criticism of the government made by Begum in her speech\u2014without naming Starmer\u2014was that its actions had done \u201ctremendous damage\u201d to \u201cthe UK\u2019s reputation abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n The only other MP speaking was former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, now also an Independent. He has not had the Labour whip for four-and-a-half years, since November 2020, and was expelled from the party prior to last July\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
Lindsey German speaking at the May 17 rally in London<\/p>\n
Apsana Begun speaking at the May 17 rally in London<\/p>\n