Pro-Palestine activists ‘use protests as cover for antisemitism’, claims Kemi Badenoch
Police arrested more than 442 pro-Palestine activists in central London on Saturday
Many pro-Palestine activists are only attending protests as a "cover” for their antisemitism, Kemi Badenoch has claimed.
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Her remarks come after two people were killed in a terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, on Thursday.
The Tory Party leader hit out at activists protesting in the wake of the attack, with multiple demonstrations today and one just hours after the killer's rampage.
Ms Badenoch, who attended visited the scene of the attack on Saturday, argued “quite a lot” of people only attend Pro-Palestine protests as "cover for antisemitism".
It comes as police made more than 442 arrests of activists supporting Palestine Action - a proscribed terror organisation – during a demonstration in central London today. The demonstration went ahead despite the Prime Minister urging activists to stay home "to respect the grief of British Jews".
A second separate protest also got underway in Manchester.
Pro-Palestine supporters began their march through Manchester, banging drums and chanting “Free Palestine!”, a group of counter-protesters got ahead of them, marching in front and holding a flag saying “F*** Hamas” and shouting “release the hostages”.
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Read more: Police arrest three more over Manchester synagogue terror attack
“II think that quite a lot of people go to those protests because they’re a cover for anti-Semitism. Otherwise, respectfully, on Thursday we would not have had protests,” Ms Badenoch said.
“If I was somebody who wanted to have a protest about an issue and there’d been an atrocity, even an unrelated atrocity, I think I’d just say: ‘Actually, do you know what? Maybe not today.’ They don’t care,” she told the Telegraph.
Sir Keir Starmer echoed the views of Met Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley and the Home Secretary, by urging activists to reconsider going ahead with marches to "respect the grief of British Jews" in the wake of the Manchester attack.
"I urge anyone thinking about protesting this weekend to recognise and respect the grief of British Jews this week.
"This is a moment of mourning. It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain," he wrote in the Jewish Chronicle.
However, Defend Our Juries, the organisation behind Saturday’s protest, urged people not to conflate Thursday's attack with the pro-Palestine movement.
A Defend Our Juries spokesman said: "It couldn't be clearer that tomorrow's action, which is in Trafalgar Square and not near any synagogue, is about defying the Government's absurdly authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action and the Government's complicity in the genocide being committed by the Israeli government.
"Yesterday's attack was actual terrorism and we join others across the country in condemning it unreservedly and we urge the Home Secretary and the police to prioritise protecting the community, instead of arresting entirely peaceful protesters.
"Cancelling peaceful protests lets terror win.
"It's more important than ever to defend our democracy, including our fundamental rights to peaceful protest and freedom of speech, and to take a stand tomorrow against killing and against oppression, and for peace and justice for all."