.jpg)
Huge Pro-Palestine protests to erupt today just
hours after Rishi Sunak's chilling warning
Barclays will be the focus of demonstrations up and
down the country today with tensions running high following Rishi Sunak's
speech in Downing Street yesterday.
By CIARAN
MCGRATH, Senior News Reporter
08:35, Sat,
Mar 2, 2024 | UPDATED: 08:36, Sat, Mar 2, 2024
Huge
Pro-Palestine protests will continue across the country today - with extra
attention focused on them after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday claimed
democracy is being targeted by extremists.
Local
demonstrations are planned for this weekend prior to another national march,
organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in central London on March 9.
Many of the
actions this weekend are directed against Barclays Bank, which the PSC claims
holds "substantial financial ties with arms companies supplying weapons
and military technology to Israel".
Branches of
the bank will be targeted on high streets from Abergavenny, in south Wales, to
Worthing, in West Sussex, according to the group.
Mr Sunak,
speaking at a lectern outside Number 10 Downing Street, spoke about the current
situation in Britain, in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas
against Israel, in an address to the nation on Friday.
He further
warned there were "forces here at home trying to tear us apart”, claimed
"our democracy itself is a target" and decried a recent
"shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality".
And he
branded the victory of George Galloway in the Rochdale by-election "beyond
alarming".
Mr Sunak
also spoke directly to those taking part in pro-Palestine protests, urging
organisers to demonstrate peacefully and "with empathy".
He said he
had told senior police chiefs the public expected the protests to be policed
rather than simply managed.
The
Conservative Party leader said: "I want to speak directly to those who
choose to continue to protest: don't let the extremists hijack your marches.
Pro
Palestinian Demonstration In London
"You
have a chance in the coming weeks to show that you can protest decently,
peacefully and with empathy for your fellow citizens.
"Let
us prove these extremists wrong and show them that even when we disagree, we
will never be disunited."
The Prime
Minister said a line has to be drawn so that while people should be able to
"march and protest with passion" in support of Gaza, demonstrators
"cannot call for violent jihad", to justify the actions of
Palestinian militant group Hamas - a proscribed group in the UK, which bans any
show of support - or "call for the eradication of a state or any kind of
hatred or antisemitism".
Labour
leader Sir Keir Starmer appeared to back the Prime Minister's message calling
for unity in the country.
In a
statement, he said: "The Prime Minister is right to advocate unity and to
condemn the unacceptable and intimidatory behaviour that we have seen
recently."
But his
comments were also met with criticism, particularly from those he took aim at
including Mr Galloway, who secured almost 40 percent of the vote in a
constituency that has a strong Muslim population.
He accused
Mr Sunak of using Britain's Muslim population as a "whipping boy" and
treating them as "second class voters".
"And
that is what he was doing in Downing Street today, a despicable and dangerous
thing," said the newly elected MP, who has become a divisive figure in
British politics in recent decades.
"And
secondly, alarmed at the growing support for Palestine, for Gaza in Britain,
the attempt is being made to paint these peaceful demonstrators - almost always
demonstrating without a single arrest being made, without so much as a paper
cup being dropped - they are trying to conflate peaceful democratic protest in
Britain with some kind of mob, with some kind of violence and
intimidation."
Mr Galloway
also told Sky News reporter Sam Coates: “I despise the Prime Minister.”
George
Galloway gives BBC's Nicholas Watt some 'advice'
Speaking
ahead of today’s scheduled protests, Ben Jamal, director of Palestine
Solidarity Campaign, responded to the Prime Minister's address by suggesting he
"look in the mirror" and expel some senior MPs from his party.
Mr Jamal
posted on X saying: "So Rishi Sunak wants to deal with 'extremists'. Maybe
he should start with politicians, political commentators and religious leaders
who support a state, on trial for genocide, in its mass slaughter, and
deliberate creation of famine. Not those protesting against it.
"As
for his ire at those who seek to divide us, does he ever look in the mirror, or
around his cabinet table? Come back when you've kicked Suella Braverman, Robert
Jenrick (and) Michael Gove out. That's just for starters."
Express.co.uk
has contacted the bank to ask what additional security measures it is taking.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário