{"id":491336,"date":"2025-10-11T15:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/491336\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T15:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:44:14","slug":"thousands-gather-in-london-in-march-for-lasting-peace-in-gaza-israel-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/491336\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather in London in march for \u2018lasting peace\u2019 in Gaza | Israel-Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people have gathered in central London to call for \u201clasting peace\u201d in Gaza, a day after the ceasefire agreement between Israel<\/a> and Hamas came into effect.<\/p>\n

The demonstration, organised by the Palestine<\/a> Solidarity Campaign, began at Victoria Embankment and headed to Whitehall. Stalls sold keffiyehs and people handed out placards that read \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\u201d, \u201cit\u2019s not a crime to act against genocide\u201d and \u201cStarmer has blood on his hands, free Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ben Jamal, the director of the campaign group, said the march went ahead, despite a ceasefire coming into effect, because the \u201cplan that has been laid out by Donald Trump is not a plan for enduring peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Yui Mok\/PA<\/p>\n

He said the plan said \u201cnothing about the root causes of violence\u201d nor anything \u201cabout the system of apartheid\u201d in Palestine or the \u201cright to self-determination\u201d for Palestinians. He added that the group\u2019s campaigning and protesting would not end \u201cuntil the Palestinian people are finally free\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the 32nd national demonstration in support of Palestine since October 2023, according to PSC.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Joanna Chan\/AP<\/p>\n

A counter-protest by the Jewish-led Stop the Hate group was expected to take place at the junction of Aldwych and the Strand, with police putting measures in place to try to prevent any clashes between the two groups.<\/p>\n

Scotland Yard said it had imposed conditions on both demonstrations under the Public Order Act to \u201cprevent serious disruption\u201d and had set out specific areas where protesters could gather, as well as a march route.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, the government announced that police would be given greater powers to restrict protests by allowing them to consider the \u201ccumulative impact\u201d of repeated demonstrations.<\/p>\n

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, called for pro-Palestine protests scheduled to take place last weekend to be cancelled or postponed after a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester in which two people were killed.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, while on a trade mission in India, Keir Starmer said protest laws, including chants<\/a>, were being reviewed by the government.<\/p>\n

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A protester from Our Fight, a pro-Israel organisation, holds up a sign among pro-Palestinian supporters in London. Photograph: Yui Mok\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked the home secretary to look more broadly at what other powers are available, how they\u2019re being used, and whether they should be changed in any way,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cI think we need to go further than that in relation to some of the chants that are going on at some of these protests.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is just over two years since the Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza<\/a>. Jamal said: \u201cFor two years we have seen Israel commit a no-holds-barred genocide with the political and military support of successive UK governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn response, a community of resistance in this country has responded with an historic show of solidarity \u2013 actively and intensively campaigning, day in day out, to demand politicians, public bodies and corporations end their complicity with Israel\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a movement supported by millions of people in this country and around the world<\/a> who want freedom and justice for Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the march takes place, displaced Palestinians have started their journeys back to the ruins of their homes<\/a> in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people have gathered in central London to call for \u201clasting peace\u201d in Gaza, a day after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-491336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}