The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a charity in the United Kingdom, announced on Friday that they were forced to cancel their Saturday Walk Together march after threats caused concerns for participant safety.
The march would have seen large numbers of observant Jews walk for hours on Shabbat to demonstrate against antisemitism and the repeated scenes of pro-Hamas rhetoric during the weekly pro-Palestinian marches.
CAA director and CEO Gideon Falter made headlines last week, when a Metropolitan Police officer threatened to arrest him for being “openly Jewish” near a pro-Palestinian march. The policeman claimed that Falter’s presence may antagonize the protesters.
The charity has repeatedly claimed that London had become a no-go zone for British Jewry and the above incident instigated new accusations that the police employ double standards.
Now, adding to the accusation that the Met employ double standards against Jews, CAA claimed that the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign was granted access to an area to protest which police had denied Jewish demonstrators months ago.
The camapin claims that police told them there was no way that Hyde Park could be accessed during the peaceful March Against Antisemitism, but the PSC would be allowed to demonstrate there tomorrow.
“Yet again, it seems that there is a double standard. For the hours that this march drags on, central London will be snarled up yet again. Police have told us that they intend to handle the march no differently from the passive way that they have become accustomed to over the course of more than six months,” CAA said in a release. “…We have become all too used to seeing antisemitic chants and placards at these marches, glorification of terrorism, and even violence, including attacks on police which have hospitalised officers. Our volunteers and members of the public have exposed, week after week, how widely extremist views are held among participants on these marches.”
Urging concrete measures be placed to protect British Jewry
On Thursday, CAA representatives met with the UK Home Secretary and the Minister for Policing where they proposed new measures the police could utilize to manage the protests.
After CAA Director of Investigations and Enforcement Stephen Silverman met with officials from the Metropolitan Police, the charity ultimately decided to cancel their event.
“Due to the thousands of people now intending to join and then walk where they please – something that we used to take for granted in London as Jewish people without having to discuss with police ahead of time – we still do not have confidence that people would be safe,” CAA explained.
The decision came in the wake of numerous threats and the organization claimed to have identified “hostile actors who seem to have intended to come to any meeting locations that we announced.”
“The risk to the safety of those who wished to walk openly as Jews in London tomorrow as part of this initiative has therefore become too great,” the organization concluded. “We are no less angry about these marches than our Jewish community and its allies. We want to walk. We want to force the Met to police these marches, not merely manage them. But we cannot encourage thousands of people to walk when there are such risks to their safety, and there are.”
National Jewish Assembly Chairman Gary Mond, who was planning to attend tomorrow’s march, told the Jerusalem Post: "It is a pity that those of our members who wanted to walk on this Shabbat with Gideon Falter will not have the opportunity to do so. It is absolutely fundamental that Jews in the UK, just like everyone else, should have the right to walk in public wherever they want. It was however good that Gideon had the opportunity to meet the Home Secretary and put forward the wholly sensible view that these hate marches should be banned.
When asked if there was a chance Jewish demonstrators would still attempt to march, Mond said that he was unsure. He stated that many who would have attended the CAA march will now likely join the ‘Enough is Enough’ static protest tomorrow.
“Sir Mark Rowley has to take responsibility for having allowed these demonstrations for the past six months with horrible consequences and should resign."