Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday to show solidarity with Palestine and to reiterate calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Demonstrators met on Queen Victoria Street before making their way along Fleet Street towards Parliament Square. The protest, part of a global day of action, comes after the RAF and the US military carried out airstrikes against Houthi bases in Yemen.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which organised the event, claimed “hundreds of thousands” of people had joined the march. There were nine arrests.
Little Amal, a 12ft giant puppet of a Syrian child refugee, accompanied protesters as they marched towards Parliament Square. Amir Nizar Zuabi, the artistic director of Walk With Amal, was among the marchers.
He said: “Amal is a Syrian child. She’s 10. She’s a representation of refugee children everywhere.”
Zuabi is Palestinian. “Refugees and Palestine are almost synonyms. We have some of the longest-existing refugee population in the world. Gaza is consistent with lots of refugees, all the refugees that came from Jaffa and what we call the Sahel, the coastal areas of Palestine are now in the refugee camps in Gaza and are targeted again,” he said.
“One of the things that is so, so horribly loud and atrociously clear is the fact that children are being targeted in large numbers,” he added.
Speaking at Parliament Square, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, accused the British government of “complicity” with Israel. He said that Palestine was a “nation of freedom fighters”, saying: “I stand before you with a broken heart but not a broken spirit.”
He congratulated South Africa for bringing a genocide case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice.
Sinn Féin’s president, Mary Lou McDonald, told the crowd in London that Palestinian freedom is possible.
She said: “When I say this, standing in London, in common cause with you, [having] walked our own journey out of conflict, building peace for 25 years, this can happen.
“This must happen and we will ensure that it does.”
Hundreds of police officers were on duty in the capital on Saturday. The Met said officers from forces outside London were brought in. Users on social media reported that the Met was handing out flyers warning people to “keep on the right side of the law”, noting that “while the majority of people are complying with these rules, a minority have crossed the line”.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of showing support for a proscribed organisation, which is an offence under the Terrorism Act, by distributing leaflets.
There were three arrests for inciting racial hatred – one related to a placard and two for chanting – while there were a further two arrests for racially aggravated public order offences. A ninth arrest was made for possession of stickers to be used for criminal damage.
The Met has put a number of conditions in place, including: any person participating in the procession must not deviate from the route specified; the speeches at the assembly after the procession must end by 4.30pm and the whole event must end by 5pm; no participant in the protest may enter the area around the Israeli embassy.
This is the seventh National March for Palestine organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign since October.