London police agree to distance anti-Israel rallies from synagogues after complaints

The decision follows complaints that the London Met police have not done enough to protect the Jewish community.

The London Metropolitan police have agreed to require the first of a series of anti-Israel rallies to be held at a further distance from local synagogues after complaints from Jewish community leaders, the Jewish Chronicle reports.

The decision follows complaints that the London Met police have not done enough to protect the Jewish community.

Over 80 MPs and peers signed a letter to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley demanding that the demonstrations be re-routed away from the synagogues.

In their response, the Met police admitted that the original plan to allow the anti-Israel rally just a few hundred meters from synagogues on Shabbat would “cause serious disruption.”

The rally, planned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), begins on Shabbat at the BBC headquarters, not far from London’s Central Synagogue.

In a statement, the Met said that if the PSC refuses to re-route their protest, they may invoke the Public Order Act to deal with illegal assemblies and riots.

Board of Deputies Vice President Andrew Gilbert praised the decision to reroute the protest. He said, “The Board has been working with the police and the Jewish community on the routes of the marches. We appreciate the detailed work by the police and believe that this clarity from them is an important step forward.”

A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust (CST) added: “CST and others have been demanding for a long time now that these marches are routed far away from any synagogues, and we appreciate the efforts of the police to ensure that this is the case. It is highly irresponsible and provocative of the PSC to choose this location when they know it causes so much alarm and upset for the local Jewish community.”

In December, UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said the police were failing to protect the Jewish community by allowing an antisemitic march to begin near two major synagogues.

“The Metropolitan Police are responsible for upholding the right to peaceful protest and for ensuring that Jewish Londoners feel safe,” the rabbi said. “There can be no justification for not making a clear commitment that the routes of pro-Palestinian marches will not come anywhere close to local synagogues.”

“It is hard to see the absence of such a commitment as anything other than a failure of the Met’s duty to members of Jewish communities who no longer feel safe walking to and from their synagogues on the Sabbath,” he added.