Pro-Palestine protest organisers slam Met Police chief over ‘defamatory’ synagogue march route claims
The Palestine Coalition has formally demanded that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley withdraw claims that pro-Palestinian protest organizers have repeatedly tried to include synagogues in their planned routes through London.
The coalition, which includes groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Stop the War Coalition, described Sir Mark’s claims as “incomprehensible and defamatory” in a letter to the police chief.
The controversy stems from comments made by Sir Mark TimesHe said: “Their route, their first suggestion for their walk, was to pass a synagogue. Every time we blocked that, we set conditions.
“The fact that that was the intention of the organizers, I think it sends a message… it feels like antisemitism. That may or may not be a fair or unfair inference, but that’s the message it sends.”
In its letter, the Palestine Coalition called for “the immediate retraction of the accompanying disgusting allegation of antisemitism.”
They continued their opening statement: “We are deeply concerned that you have publicly stated that the organisers’ initial proposal for the Palestine marches ‘involved passing a synagogue’ and that this sent a message that ‘feels like anti-Semitism’. These allegations are incomprehensible and defamatory.”
The coalition flatly denied the allegations, saying: “The truth is that we have never asked for a synagogue to be ‘passed’ in any of our marches. We have no interest in doing so.”
They claimed police recordings of the meeting would confirm this and offered to provide evidence via email. The letter details how the initial route they proposed for an upcoming march, which had been used “at least twice before” and included no synagogues, was not allowed because it would “inexplicably be given away to the entire political center of London” due to the Tommy Robinson demonstration.
The second proposal made by the Israeli embassy to Trafalgar Square via Knightsbridge was also rejected, “arbitrarily imposing a shorter route” even though it did not pass through a synagogue.
They concluded that “it is completely unacceptable for a senior public official to make these false claims and accusations and that this can only increase tensions in the current situation.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman responded by explaining that Sir Mark’s comments, which were “not fully captured in the article”, were “not specific to the protest which will take place on Saturday 16 May”.
Instead, he was “reflecting on the totality of the ongoing protest period since October 2023,” during which nearly 30 major marches were organized by the coalition’s constituent groups.
The spokesperson added that “for about half of these marches, the original proposals put forward by organizers involved starting or finishing near a synagogue or walking past a synagogue.”
They also noted that the route or formation point was changed 20 times “to protect Jewish communities and sensitive buildings from disruption and/or intimidation” through circumstances or pre-event discussions.
The spokesman explained that the Commissioner believed that the organisers’ repeated intention “to continue to approach and gather in synagogues in many cases, or to pass near synagogues, could, in his view, send a message to Jewish communities that felt like antisemitism”.
While acknowledging that “it may or may not be a fair inference,” they emphasized that “the strength of the feeling of these communities makes it clear that for many this is the message it sends.”
The Met concluded by urging everyone, including protest organisers, to “be mindful of the impact of their actions, whether intentional or not, on other Londoners” and to “acknowledge how British Jews feel in the current environment”.
