{"id":562767,"date":"2026-05-02T17:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562767\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T17:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:40:12","slug":"organisers-challenge-starmers-threat-to-ban-some-pro-palestine-marches-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562767\/","title":{"rendered":"Organisers challenge Starmer\u2019s threat to ban some pro-Palestine marches | UK news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organisers of pro-Palestine marches have said Keir Starmer\u2019s threat to ban some demonstrations<\/a> opposing Israel\u2019s actions in the Middle East will \u201cstrike at the root of free assembly and free speech\u201d in the UK.<\/p>\n

On Saturday morning, the prime minister told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme that \u201cthere are instances\u201d in which he would support stopping some pro-Palestine protests altogether.<\/p>\n

Starmer said he also wanted the language expressed on some protest marches to be subjected to \u201ctougher action\u201d, including the chant \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d. Intifada is an Arabic word that translates to uprising or \u201cshaking off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some pro-Palestine voices use the phrase as an expression of solidarity with Palestinians resisting Israeli occupation while some Jewish groups and leaders have described it as a call to violence.<\/p>\n

His comments come days after a series of attacks on the British Jewish community in recent weeks, including the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green in north London on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

John Rees, co-founder and national officer for the Stop The War coalition, which helps organise large pro-Palestine demonstrations in central London, considered Starmer\u2019s comments a \u201cthreat\u201d against his coalition\u2019s own protests.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News, Rees said a ban \u201cwill be to strike at the root of free assembly and free speech in this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that people in this country are minded to say: \u2018Oh, well, we did it once, and that didn\u2019t work. So we\u2019re now going home.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as the wars continue, as long as the killing continues, people will want to say to this government, you\u2019re complicit in this, and you should stop. And will want to say to the Israeli government, you\u2019re setting the Middle East on fire. It\u2019s now impacting not only the lives of Palestinians, but the livelihood of people around the globe and you should stop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked about a \u201csmall percentage\u201d of people who appear to express support for Hamas or chant the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, Rees said out of the millions of people who have attended the demonstrations overall, a \u201cminuscule number\u201d of arrests have been made for such offences.<\/p>\n

He said when stewards at the demonstrations see \u201cinappropriate slogans\u201d, they \u201cask people not to use them and, by and large, they comply\u201d.<\/p>\n

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for pro-Palestine marches to be banned altogether on Saturday afternoon, claiming \u201cthey are used as a cover for promoting violence and intimidation against Jews\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rees said: \u201cWe have to be absolutely clear here, there is no threat whatsoever to the Jewish community from these marches. In fact, they are attended by thousands of Jewish people who disapprove of the actions of the government and disapprove of the actions of the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defend Our Juries, which organises demonstrations where people express support for the proscribed group Palestine Action<\/a>, responded to Starmer\u2019s comments on X, saying: \u201cEnd the genocide, not our freedoms to oppose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer stressed his suggestion some protest marches could be banned was \u201cnot a discussion that has only been had this week in response to this awful incident. That is a discussion we\u2019ve been having with the police for some time\u201d.<\/p>\n

He told Today: \u201cIn relation to the repeated nature of the marches, many people in the Jewish community have said to me, it\u2019s the repeat nature, it\u2019s the cumulative effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he supported calls for a moratorium on pro-Palestinian marches \u2013 notably from his independent adviser on terrorism Jonathan Hall \u2013 Starmer said: \u201cI think it\u2019s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect. I think it\u2019s time for, I would say, some people protesting to just reflect on what the Jewish community is going through and the overall impact that this is having.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s comments came as Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said a \u201cdangerous and troubling\u201d mix of hate crimes, terrorism and the involvement of hostile states was coming together in the UK to create a terrifying atmosphere for British Jews.<\/p>\n

Rees said the problem with linking pro-Palestine demonstrations with attacks on Jewish people is that it \u201cacts as if there\u2019s a causal relationship\u201d between the two.<\/p>\n

Referring to those who carry out attacks against the Jewish community, including Essa Suleiman, who has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after attacking a longtime friend before stabbing two Jewish men in Golders Green, Rees said: \u201cThese kind of individuals are not attached to the Palestine movement. They are not attached to the marches. There\u2019s no evidence that they\u2019ve ever seen a march, let alone been on one, or that the organisers would for a second condone it. So this connection is completely fallacious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Downing Street has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organisers of pro-Palestine marches have said Keir Starmer\u2019s threat to ban some demonstrations opposing Israel\u2019s actions in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}