The London Metropolitan Police arrested one of the organisers of the pro-Palestine rally on Saturday in central London after imposing restrictions banning protesters from marching towards the headquarters of the BBC.
Organisers denied claims made by the Met that protesters had forced their way through a police cordon to march towards the BBC after ending their protest in Whitehall.
The police said 77 arrests were made during Saturday’s protest, which organisers estimated drew 100,000 people.
Among those arrested was Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, who served as the chief steward for the national protest for Palestine.
Footage taken by Middle East Eye showed police officers in riot gear surrounding Nineham and bundling him into the back of a police van after a small group of protesters left Whitehall to lay down flowers in Trafalgar Square, commemorating the deaths of Palestinian children.
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Crowds could be heard shouting “shame on you” and “free, free Palestine” at the police as they detained Nineham.
The Met said it was launching an investigation and claimed there was a “coordinated effort led by the protest organisers to march out of Whitehall in a clear breach of the conditions”.
“There is video footage of one of the organisers clearly inciting the crowd to join a march, and one of the organisations involved has released a statement this evening confirming as much,” said Commander Adam Slonecki, who led the policing operation.
“At the same time as the group was attempting to force its way past police lines, camera crews were seen arriving in Portland Place. It is unlikely that the timing was simply a coincidence.”
Tensions ran high on Saturday after the police attempted to impose last-minute restrictions on the protest despite organisers approving the route with the police months in advance.
A coalition of advocacy groups, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, the Stop the War Coalition and Friends of Al-Aqsa, publicly announced the march’s original route on 30 November.
Key restrictions imposed by the police included a ban on beginning the march outside the BBC, citing concerns about its proximity to a synagogue.
On Saturday, protest organisers said coalition leaders, several speakers and members of the Jewish Bloc would walk silently towards the BBC.
The plan was to lay flowers as a symbolic gesture to condemn what they described as the BBC’s complicity in its Gaza coverage.
The organisers clarified that the walk would halt at the furthest point the police allowed them to proceed.
Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who spoke at the rally in Whitehall, was part of the group that laid flowers and was present when police arrested Nineham.
McDonnell pushed back on police claims that protesters had “forced through” a cordon and said officers had allowed them to go as far as Trafalgar Square before dispersing.
“I spoke at demo and was part of a procession of speakers aiming to go to BBC to lay flowers commemorating the death of Palestinian children. We did not force our way through; the police allowed us to go through, and when stopped in Trafalgar Square, we laid our flowers down and dispersed,” McDonnell wrote on X.
He said he would be grateful if the Met “could publish the body camera footage of my conversation with a white-capped police officer at the head of the procession, in which I explained this was our intention”.
“Regrettably, soon after I had explained to the police officer our intentions and we awaited the arrangements to lay the flowers, bizarrely, the police violently arrested one of the march stewards, who was organising the presentation of the flowers and the dispersal of the crowd,” he added.
Zack Polanski, deputy leader of the Green Party, also denied the police claims that marchers had “forced through” a cordon and said he was with the group officers allowed into Trafalgar Square.
The original route was set to begin outside the BBC headquarters and proceed to Whitehall, where Downing Street and other government offices are located.
Demonstrators said they wanted to “protest against the pro-Israel bias” of the BBC’s coverage of Gaza.
But the Metropolitan Police altered the route after objections from pro-Israel groups, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and several MPs.
The coalition went back and forth with the police over restrictions and routes, with many MPs, celebrities and prominent figures condemning the restrictions.
The Jewish Bloc, which plays a major part in marches and demonstrations, also released a statement against the Met’s move, garnering over 1,000 signatories.
