We are concerned that the Metropolitan Police are threatening to place restriction orders on next Saturday’s Palestine protest, delaying the start time by one hour and 45 minutes to 2:30PM and refusing us Pall Mall as an assembly point.
No explanation has been given for these moves, made at 4pm on Friday after the police themselves cancelled a meeting to discuss the demo on Thursday morning.
The normal assembly time of 12pm and the assembly point has been public for days.
Changing the start time of the demonstration, which is marching to the Israeli Embassy, from the normal 1pm to 2.30pm is completely unpractical and will cause major problems, especially for people coming from outside London.
The organisers first informed the police of their plas on 8 August, more than three weeks ago. We worry that these kind of delays and late challenges and conditions to the plans of what are entirely peaceful demonstrations are forming a pattern. We urge the Metropolitan police to avoid causing disruption and accept that the march should go ahead at the normal, planned time and from Pall Mall as announced.
- Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- Palestinian Forum in Britain
- Friends of Al-Aqsa
- Stop the War Coalition
- Muslim Association of Britain
- Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Signatories
- Apsana Begum MP
- Baroness Christine Blower
- Richard Burgon MP
- Ian Byrne MP
- Jeremy Corbyn MP
- Lord Bryn Davies
- Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary TSSA
- Alex Gordon, President RMT
- Fran Heathcote, General Secretary, PCS
- Lord John Hendy
- Imran Hussain MP
- Daniel Kebede, General Secretary NEU
- Ayoub Khan MP
- Ian Lavery MP
- John Leach, Assistant General Secretary RMT
- Clive Lewis MP
- Mick Lynch, General Secretary RMT
- Andy McDonald MP
- John McDonnell MP
- Iqbal Mohammed MP
- Grahame Morris MP
- Zarah Sultana MP
- Jon Trickett MP
- Mick Whelan, General Secretary ASLEF
- Sarah Woolley, General Secretary BFAWU