The National March for Palestine: Some Reflections on Urban Mass Public Protest in the 21st Century
Sir Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Police Commissioner for London, deliberated with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on 8 November 2023. The two then agreed that the National March for Palestine in central London, described as “disrespectful” by Sunak, as a “hate march” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and as “atrocious” by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, could proceed as planned on Armistice Day, Saturday 11 November, although Sir Mark would be held “accountable” for any undesirable consequences of his support for the procession.
The march is due to commence at 12: 45 PM, at the Marble Arch corner of Hyde Park on the east side of Park Lane, proceeding southward along Park Lane and through the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park, before continuing along Grosvenor Place and Vauxhall Bridge Road, and crossing the River Thames to the US Embassy at Nine Elms in Vauxhall. The event has been organised by a coalition of six groups, including Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum for Britain, Friends of al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain, and Stop the War Coalition.
Earlier, on 6 November 2023, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan of the Metropolitan Police stated: “It is not appropriate to hold any protests in London this weekend”, particularly since the march coincided with Armistice Day, when there is a national two-minute silence at 11 AM and when two performances of the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall are scheduled for 2 PM and 7 PM. Subsequently, however, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner concluded that the threshold for banning the march under Section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986 had not been met, given that the marchers had promised “to stay away from the Cenotaph and Whitehall and have no intention of disrupting the nation’s remembrance events”.
During the early phases of the 21st century, globalisation, online print media, 24-hour news channels, social media platforms, and video channels have created an environment which favours urban, often transnational, mass protests, in the form of demonstrations, marches, rallies, occupations of public spaces, strikes, civil disobedience, and the like as expressions of participatory democracy, especially in liberal democracies. Military actions in distant territories can trigger dissent between polarised elements, with conflicting loyalties, on home ground, especially in countries with large diasporic communities originating from these conflict zones. Similarly, movements for global economic, social, and racial justice, or for environmental issues, such as climate change, may often transcend national borders, driven as they are by shared stories and common goals.
A surge in mass public protest in 2011 led to Time magazine naming “The Protester” as its Person of the Year for 2011. That year, the Arab Spring erupted in Tunisia, and rapidly spread elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East, leading to regime change in Egypt, civil war in Libya, and mass protests in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, and Bahrain. The Aganatiksmenoi and Indignados summer saw anti-austerity protests in Greece and Spain, respectively, while the global Occupy movement, led by the Occupy Wall Street Movement in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, targeted global financial institutions and elites. Twelve years later, the pro-Palestine marches of 2023 have similarly spread, albeit more widely, across the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, the Americas, Asian, Australia, and elsewhere, far outnumbering any pro-Israel counter-demonstrations
According to its organisers, the planned March for Palestine is meant to be a peaceful demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinian people and a call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. It has been stated that similar previous pro-Palestine marches in the UK have attracted people from a variety of backgrounds, including both left-wing, pacifist, and anti-Zionist Jews, as well as militant Hamas sympathisers. Whatever happens on the day, most reasonable people would expect it to be a peaceful occasion, untarnished by incitement to violence from both within or by agents provocateurs from without, intent on disruption, provocation of anti-Semitism, wanton destruction of property, and criminal damage to war memorials and other symbols of the British State. Anti-war demonstrations have a poor track record of success, but the decision to let the March for Palestine to go ahead confirms the operational independence of the Metropolitan Police and its commitment to support public protest, even though public opinion remains sharply divided on the matter. We must await events on the day, as usual, before delivering a verdict on the effectiveness, or otherwise, of this latest public mass protest in London.
Ashis Banerjee