Met bans pro-Palestine march from gathering outside BBC headquarters
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Scotland Yard imposes Public Order Act owing to proximity of Broadcasting House to a nearby synagogue. Scotland Yard has banned a pro-Palestine march from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters, owing to its proximity to a synagogue. Protesters were planning to gather outside Broadcasting House in Portland Place on Saturday 18 January before marching to Whitehall. On Thursday evening, police said they had imposed the Public Order Act to prevent the rally from gathering in the area as it risked causing “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.
The Metropolitan police said they had “reflected on the views of local community and business representatives”, including congregation members at a synagogue a “very short distance” from the proposed rally meet-up point, before reaching its decision.
Earlier this week, the force told the protest organisers, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, to alter their plans in order to avoid disruption to worshippers at the synagogue and had threatened to impose the conditions to stop the rally. In response to the Met’s demand, the PSC said on Wednesday it “utterly condemned” the use of “repressive powers”.
“The Palestine coalition rejects the implication that our marches are somehow hostile to or a threat to Jewish people,” the group had said in a previous statement. “The Met police have acknowledged there has not been a single incident of any threat to a synagogue attached to any of the marches.”.
