Although the back of the march appeared to assimilate from nowhere, straggles of people adorning Palestinian flags, banners, & other cause-friendly symbols, the march soon enveloped us & seemed almost to have always been that way from the start. The march made slow progress, we managed to cover approximately half a mile in an hour & a half. The mood was a mix of sombre, & joyful protest, mainly given light by the many children present, although many of them too young to understand the true horrors that both sides of the conflict have & continue to face.

There was a heavy police presence, though 80% of them that I had observed peered out into the streets, bored, through the reinforced glass of the riot vans that lined the side streets adjacent to the route of the march. Suella Braverman had exerted a great deal of effort in the week prior, accusing the days of protest as “hate marches” & likely to cause upset on Armistice Day. Many critics pointed out both the low rate of arrests in previous marches & the likelihood of far-right activists taking to the streets. In any case, this is exactly what transpired. The events of disruption occurred near the Cenotaph & near blockades around Parliament Square. I covered events at the Pro-Palestinian march, moving throughout the length to ensure maximum coverage. I had heard reports of hate symbols & anti-Semitic chants & wanted to try & document evidence. Although I did not manage to achieve this, there was documented evidence that led to the arrest of 10 individuals. There was also the arrest of approximately 80 far-right counter-protestors who were apprehended attempting to head off the front of the march, as well as others around the city. See Christian Cross’s coverage of some of these events & the Tommy Robinson-led counter-march, before Robinson absconded in a pride-themed London black cab.

The events that I captured were similar to the previous marches I attended, peaceful, with a sense of tangible unity against the horrors happening in Gaza at this time, as well as in the face of atrocities committed by Hammas on the 7th of October & the plea for the release of hostages. There was a diverse range of people present, representing every walk of life. The chants included “Free free, Palestine” & “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Some consider the latter to be a controversial chant & is anti-Semitic, & some people have come forward to say they have felt threatened by the protesters. All protestors I have spoken to maintain this chant implies freedom to both the Gaza strip that borders the sea, & the illegally occupied West Bank that is bordered by the River Jordan. The protests have been largely peaceful with minimal arrests. In contrast, Israeli spokespeople continue to assert that the issue is a case of anti-Semitism, where Hammas wants to see the destruction of the state of Israel. It is important to note that many allies of Isreal continue to conflate that of Isreal the state & Isreal as a concept that represents all Jews & Judaism. There have been a large number of Jews that publically condemn Isreal’s actions, as well as many that condemn Zionism as a whole. As the proportionality of Israel’s military response seems to continue to escalate, despite both sides appearing to have committed heinous war crimes, international opinion begins to unify against the continued bombardment of the Gaza strip, resulting in over 11,000 Palestinian deaths in little over three weeks. Many officials maintain that the situation is complex & impossible to navigate, unfortunately, it would seem that the contrary is clearly true, & that it is simply the lack of the Western leadership’s ability to think critically, & not pander to populist rhetoric.

As approximately 1 in 100 people in the United Kingdom physically showed up to this protest, how many more people share the hope for our government to back a ceasefire? This is not a conflict in which you should choose sides, but rather, you should choose to strive for a future in which there is peace, & no more children have to die. For that, we can all agree on.