Protestors stood on the bridge with colourful flares and chanted slogans like “get your hands of Palestine” and “Zionism is a crime” to mark two years since the war in Gaza began
London’s Tower Bridge was blocked by protestors this evening on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks as crowds chanted and carried banners.
Protestors carried colourful flares and chanted slogans like “get your hands of Palestine” and “Zionism is a crime” to mark two years since the war in Gaza began. The demonstration followed a march of hundreds of university students marched through central London and demonstrated outside universities in the capital.
The “Inter-University March” saw scores of demonstrators clad in keffiyehs and brandishing placards protesting outside universities including King’s College London (KCL) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). The protestors defied calls from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urging protestors to call off “un-British” demonstrations taking place across the country to mark two years since the Hamas attack of October 7 killed around 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 people taken hostage.
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In the war that followed Israel ’s military retaliation in Gaza has claimed the lives of around 67,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities. On September 16, a United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
The march in London comes amid heightened tensions after Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, launched a terror attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, killing two men sparking calls for calm in the UK. The Evening Standard reported that a small group had blocked Tower Bridge this evening before a static protest near the PM’s residence on Downing Street.
Activists chanted “from the river to the sea” and sang the an anti-Nazi and anti-fascist Italian folk song “Bella ciao” while outside the gates to Downing Street. Speaking to more than 100 protesters gathered near SOAS University in Bloomsbury, expelled student Haya Adam said: “Keir Starmer has urged students not to protest today but we are here today.
“We have successfully marched all the way from KCL to SOAS. We will not be intimidated by the state or afraid by their oppression.”
She added: “It’s our responsibility to march today because it’s been over two years, two years and 77 years of an ongoing nakba, of continuous forced starvation, massacres against our Palestinian brothers and sisters.”
But Emily Schrader, who is visiting the UK from Israel and was holding an Israeli flag, criticised demonstrations taking place on the anniversary of the October 7 attack. Speaking outside King’s College London, the 34-year-old said: “It was an awful, awful event, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and we didn’t see an Israeli military response in any way, shape or form, until October 27th, and so to protest today specifically isn’t a sign of support for Palestinians.
“It’s a sign of support for Hamas and the actions that happened that day, and it’s wildly offensive and irresponsible, both for Israelis, of course, but even more than that, also for Palestinians who have been suffering under Hamas, who are also victims of the terror group – the UK-designated terrorist organisation.”
In Manchester, 500 pro-Palestine protestors marched through the city, meanwhile scores of people demonstrated outside Sheffield University’s students’ union. Back in London one group of demonstrators was seen entering Queen Mary University’s building to disrupt an event supported by British defence firm, BAE Systems.