Trade Unions speak out on Met policing of Gaza demonstration

The Met police is facing growing questions over its handling of a pro-Palestine protest in central London at which more than 70 people were arrested.

On Friday, trade union leaders became the latest group to write to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, demanding an independent inquiry into “repressive and heavy-handed policing” at the 18 January demonstration.

Their letter followed others by legal experts, MPs and peers and the British Palestinian Committee, to Cooper making the same demand and also calling for a review of legislation limiting protest, brought in by the Conservative government.

Amnesty International has also expressed concerns about the policing, while the Green party London Assembly member Zoë Garbett told the assembly’s police and crime committee meeting that she had been contacted by more than 150 people who described incidents of kettling and police violence towards children, pregnant women and older people.

Previous marches, which have taken place since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, have passed largely without incident and relations between police and the organisers, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), had been considered cordial.

But restrictions placed on the route of the latest rally preventing a march to the BBC’s headquarters, along with the number of arrests – including of the rally’s chief steward, Chris Nineham of the Stop the War coalition – have soured relations.

Nineham has been charged with a public order offence, as has the PSC director, Ben Jamal, while 60 of the 77 people arrested were said to have breached the conditions imposed, which the Met said was to protect a synagogue near to the BBC offices.

The force said the 60 people broke through police lines, but protesters, including the Green party deputy leader, Zack Polanski, have said the arrests were made without warning for inadvertently being outside the ill-defined permitted area.

Polanski told the Guardian columnist Owen Jones that he intervened when police tried to prevent a woman in her late 60s or early 70s from leaving the rally area to go to the toilet, while a Stop the War steward alleged they prevented officers arresting a 13-year-old girl with a placard for being in breach of the Public Order Act because she arrived before the allowed assembly time.

The various letters say the Met falsely accused protesters carrying flowers – including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell – of forcing their way through police lines when video footage shows they were initially waved through by officers.

The trade union leaders from, among others, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU), the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the University and College Union, and the transport unions RMT, TSSA and Aslef, say: “As trade unionists we are only too aware how heavy-handed policing, followed by the construction of false media narratives, have often served as a pretext to undermine our democratic rights to demonstrate and take industrial action.

The British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, star of The Crown and The Day of the Jackal, said the policing was reminiscent of policing he had seen in Egypt.

With the next march announced for 15 February, the policing response – before and on the day – is certain to come under added scrutiny.