‘Shambles’: London’s Met Police chief accused of bias after addressing pro-Israel group
A Palestinian flag held during the National March for Gaza in London on 3 August 2024
Imran Mulla reports in Middle East Eye on 21 January 2025:
London’s Metropolitan Police chief, Mark Rowley, has come under fire after he told a pro-Israel group on Sunday that his force imposed unprecedented restrictions on a major pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday that led to 77 arrests.
According to estimates by the organisers, the rally drew over 100,000 people. No previous pro-Palestine rally since 7 October 2023 has seen organisers arrested.
The Met has been widely criticised for initially approving the organising coalition’s proposed pro-Gaza march from the BBC headquarters to Whitehall but then reversing course after political pressure.
Pro-Israel groups, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, MPs and peers had reportedly urged Rowley to reroute the protest.
Police said in early January that the route was too close to two synagogues, although this reasoning was criticised by nearly a thousand British Jews, including prominent figures, in an open letter last week.
After the protest, the Met was criticised for accusing demonstrators of breaking through a police cordon in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, a claim which organisers and protesters, including prominent politicians, strongly deny.
Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski, a London Assembly member and a speaker at Saturday’s rally, wrote to the home secretary on Monday. “As shown in many videos, police had agreed through negotiation that the delegation could pass through and lay flowers,” he said. “However, they subsequently allowed a much larger group into Trafalgar Square. It is concerning to see Metropolitan Police tweets falsely stating that people were ‘forcing through’.”
Polanski told Middle East Eye the Met’s handling of the protest was a “shambles”, adding that he “and thousands of others have been smeared by claims that we forced our way through.” “This fundamentally further erodes trust in our institutions,” he said.
‘Serious questions’
Rowley is being drawn into a fresh scandal after giving a speech at an event held by the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews.
The Met Police chief said they had “used conditions on the protests more than we ever have done before”, and that his team imposed “sharper and stronger conditions” on the organisers of the demonstration.
The Board of Deputies supported Israel’s war on Gaza and slammed the Labour government for imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel in September. It was also one of the groups that reportedly urged the Met to ban the pro-Palestine march’s original route.
Several figures and groups questioned Rowley’s impartiality on Tuesday, accusing him of engaging with pro-Israel groups while failing to engage with Muslim communities.