Police have no powers to ban a static demonstration and must safeguard the right to protest, says Met police spokesman.
cotland Yard has said it cannot prevent a neo-Nazi protest taking place in the heart of one of London’s biggest Jewish areas, as community leaders and the local Conservative MP called on the Home Office to ban the rally.A group of anti-Jewish demonstrators have signalled their intention to hold a rally on 4 July in Golders Green, an area of north London where Jewish residents make up 20% of the population.
The timing is particularly provocative as it takes place on a Saturday, the Jewish day of rest when most observant Jews will be walking to synagogue.
Police have no powers to ban a static demonstration and must safeguard the right to protest, a Met police spokesman said.
Ch Supt Adrian Usher, the officer in charge of policing in Barnet, said a plan for the policing operation was being formulated. “Officers are speaking to the organiser of the protest to understand what their plans are,” he said.
The Finchley and Golders Green MP, Mike Freer, told the Guardian he had asked the Home Office to ban the protest. “The rally is not about free speech but a deliberate attempt to provoke tension and antisemitism,” he said.
Jewish community groups, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Community Security Trust and the London Jewish Forum, have also called for a ban, and more than 1,100 people have signed a Change.org petition to that effect.
A spokesman for the CST, a community body that monitors antisemitism, said it had been aware of the proposed demonstration for several weeks.
“By definition, this is attracting self-selecting antisemitic neo-Nazis who want to spend their Saturdays antagonising Jews,” a spokesman said. “If they come to Golders Green, then it will be an opportunity for Jews and non-Jews alike to stress their united values and their utter rejection of racism and antisemitism.”
The organisation said it would not be organising a counter-demonstration, but would support those who wished to hold one securely, with the cooperation of the police and local council.
Several Jewish groups have said they will organise counter-demonstrations, including leftwing Jewish collective Jewdas and the grassroots Campaign Against Antisemitism, with more than 200 people pledging attendance.
CST cautioned against a repeat of the “hype” surrounding a similar anti-Semitic demonstration touted by the neo-Nazi blogger Joshua Bonehill-Paine in Stamford Hill in the aftermath of the Paris attacks at a kosher supermarket. Bonehill has faced a number of criminal charges, including for alleged antisemitic harassment of MP Luciana Berger.
One Jew on FB writes:
Dear Jews of Golders Green:
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT???
Are you going to sit and wring your hands as this evil invades your community, appealing to the world for some act of conscience or support? Are you going to hunker down in your houses and not show your faces, laying low until the trouble passes?
Or are you going to physically stop the invaders? Are you going to step outside and block the main streets of your neighborhoods, with locked arms, declaring with your bodies “YOU SHALL NOT PASS”? Are you going to bar entrance to your streets and buildings, with the furniture of your homes and synagogues if need be, and declare that you won’t accept the presence of neo-nazis in your districts? And will you stand behind the barricades, with bricks and bats if necessary, to repel anyone who insists on charging into your midst?
Your government has removed its protection from you – it is up to YOU to defend your neighborhoods! Hunkering down will only encourage the haters!
There is a time to be nice, law-abiding Jewish citizens – but there is also a time to take the law into your own hands, particularly once the law has declared itself powerless to stop the evil from advancing. There is a time to speak with the voice of Jacob – and there is a time to employ the hands of Esau. This is the time for the latter. The choice is YOURS.
I wonder what other speech should be banned. What other demonstrations should not be allowed? Should criticism of Jews be illegal? I hate to see Jews on the side of censorship.
