UK police plan 'unprecedented' operation to prevent trouble at weekend protests

LONDON, May 13 – London police said on Wednesday they would mount an “unprecedented” operation this weekend to prevent violence and serious disorder when two large protests – anti-immigration and pro-Palestinian – take place in the British capital.

At least 80,000 people are expected in London on Saturday for the two demonstrations – a pro-Palestinian march marking Nakba Day and another ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally organised by the anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his pseudonym Tommy Robinson.

With the soccer FA Cup final also being staged at Wembley in the northwest of the capital, and against a backdrop of global tensions, recent antisemitic attacks, and a raising of Britain’s terrorism threat level, police said they would be using “the most assertive possible use of our powers” to forestall trouble.

“The scale of the operation is unprecedented in recent years,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman told reporters, saying it would involve some 4,000 officers backed up by helicopters and dog units, and with armed police vehicles in reserve.

ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS

London has recently seen a spate of arson attacks on Jewish sites, and two Jewish men were stabbed last month in an incident being treated as terrorism.

Regular large pro-Palestinian marches – of which there have been 33 since the Hamas-led assault on Israel in October 2023 – have been blamed for fuelling antisemitism, with prosecutions for those behind offensive chanting and holding placards that incite hatred.

Friday is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the loss of their land after the 1948 war at the birth of the state of Israel. “Nakba” means catastrophe in Arabic.

Meanwhile, rallies fronted by Yaxley-Lennon, who counts U.S. billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk among his supporters, have led to anti-Muslim chanting and violence, Harman said.

Last September, about 150,000 protesters attended a ‘Unite the Kingdom’ event, one of the largest such demonstrations of its kind seen in London, when Musk appeared by videolink.

Ahead of Saturday’s protests, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government had banned seven foreign “far-right agitators” from being allowed into Britain to attend Yaxley-Lennon’s event.

Robinson says he has been targeted by the state for exposing wrongdoing but his critics say he is little more than a far-right rabble-rouser with a string of criminal convictions.

“We need to be mindful this Saturday of the history of football hooligan groups supporting causes fronted by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,” Harman said. REUTERS