There weren’t many comical moments at the pro-Palestinian march in central London at the weekend, but listening to protesters arguing over dental hygiene was one.
There have been weekly marches in many British cities since the war between Israel and Hamas started last month. Last Saturday’s in Westminster was the biggest yet. Police say there were 70,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators while organisers insisted there were more than 350,000. Regardless, there was at least one yellow-toothed English fascist.
The crowd marched up and down both sides of the River Thames before proceeding down the commercial thoroughfare of Strand, through Whitehall and into Parliament Square. Amid a sea of Palestinian flags, they belted out rhythmic, staccato chants: ‘Ceasefire now! and ‘Free Palestine!’.
Suddenly there was a frisson of excitement a couple of hundred metres from the endpoint. Many at the front of the crowd halted at the Cenotaph war memorial near the entrance to Downing Street. They moved towards a handful of far-right counter-protesters who had gathered, seemingly intent on sparking trouble.
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The gleeful posse of goaders included two elderly women on mobility scooters, one of whom was called “the Duchess” judging by her vehicle’s livery. There were also a couple of young men waving English, US and Israeli flags, two older guys in leather jackets, and a wiry chap in Juicy Couture tracksuit bottoms who swigged constantly from a bottomless can of Kronenbourg 1664.
Police quickly formed a protective circle around them, as a crowd of mostly Muslim pro-Palestinian marchers began to encircle them. The English nationalists shouted offensive slogans. Some of the Muslim men retorted with “Allahu Akhbar”.
The police walked the far-right protesters away as the atmosphere became fraught. But they had difficulty separating the jubilant Juicy Couture fan from a more muscular Muslim Londoner who was intent on giving his counterpart a piece of his mind, and presumably more. These two kept trading insults until Juicy stopped in the street, his arms spread like Christ the Redeemer, and bared his teeth at his opponent while making a guttural growl. Let’s just say he didn’t exactly have a set of pearly whites. His mouth looked like a vandalised graveyard.
“Oi, you f***ing mug, when’s the last time you brushed your teeth?” screamed the pro-Palestinian muscleman. Almost instantly, the crowd struck up another rhythmic chant: “Brush your teeth, brush your teeth!” Juicy joggers looked bewildered. Then he took another swig of Kronenbourg and led his far-right comrades on to Horse Guards Avenue where they regrouped behind the safety of a crowd barrier opposite the ministry of defence.
Away from the madding crowd, the Duchess hopped off her mobility scooter and folded up her denim jacket that was laden with badges belying her political affiliations. She hid it under her scooter seat while the men retired to a nearby pub. That can couldn’t last forever.
As the conflict in the Middle East rages, Britons are also grappling with local microcosms of the dispute’s fervour. British Jews are worried about a rise in anti-Semitism. A handful of Jewish schools in north London were vandalised while at some pro-Palestinian marches, there have been complaints about chants in Arabic calling for war against “Yahud” (the Jews).
Meanwhile, Muslim communities have complained about the UK political establishment’s apparent reluctance to press Israel to ease its Gaza bombardment. Anger has started to boil over. One man this week videoed himself with a box of mice sprayed in the red, green and black colours of the Palestinian flag. He threw the rodents into a McDonald’s restaurant in Birmingham in protest at what he claimed was the fast food chain’s support for Israel.
Apart from a few scuffles, Saturday’s pro-Palestinian march in London was a relatively peaceful affair. That didn’t stop the UK’s hardline home secretary, Suella Braverman, from dismissing it as a “hate march” due to the popularity of one chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Pro-Israeli activists and many neutrals say this chant is anti-Semitic, as it implies the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, which, along with the West Bank and Gaza, lies on the stretch of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas also long ago adopted the slogan.
British pro-Palestinian protesters deny the meaning that is implied by their critics, and say the slogan simply means freedom for Palestinian people.
The wider issue has caused difficulties for Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who faces a mini rebellion from some of his MPs who say he is too soft on Israel. Muslim voters will be important in many constituencies. Starmer must finesse a way through the debate without reigniting old Labour battles about anti-Semitism within the left flank of his party.
The conflict and the suffering remains far away in Gaza and Israel. But its ripples keep lapping up on British shores.