Today I marched with the pro-Palestinian protesters in London, walking from Marble Arch to Downing Street. Here’s what I witnessed.
The crowd was pretty diverse. There were a lot of Muslims, of course. There were also a fair number of families and people of different ideologies and backgrounds. I walked with a group of queer friends.
The general mood was “resolute”. Some of the chanters were impassioned (it would be odd if they weren’t), but “anger” wasn’t the overriding emotion.
I didn’t see any calls for anti-Semitic violence. Some consider the chant of “from the river to the sea…” to inherently be an anti-Semitic dog-whistle, but it certainly sounded toothless when wedged between chants calling for a ceasefire. Similarly, I saw a fair number of signs criticising the Israeli state, but none criticising Jewish people. I saw zero support for Hamas.
I saw a single counter-protester, which consisted of a slightly confused West Ham supporter.
My favourite part of the protest would have to be the shows of solidarity from others - a construction worker waving a Palestinian flag, cars honking in support, the tube driver who said “free Palestine” as we disembarked (probably a sackable offence - I hope he’s alright).
If I had to point out problems, it would be small things. Socialist organisations pushing their magazines at the entrance to Marble Arch station felt self-serving. People setting off fireworks and smoke flares were annoying. But with 100,000 people present (or 300,000 by upper estimates), these complaints feel pretty mild.
I’m documenting my experience here because I have no doubt the British tabloids and social media will do a fine job of painting the protest as a violent, terrorist-supporting mob. And that’s not what I saw.
