The Home Secretary has urged pro-Palestine protestors to step back ‘for at least a few days’ after the horrific Manchester synagogue attack.
Shabana Mahmood issued the plea amid plans for huge demonstrations this weekend.
Hundreds of activists gathered outside the gates of Downing Street in Westminster yesterday as part of a protest against the detention of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which included Greta Thunberg.
The march, which took place just hours after two people were killed in a ‘barbaric’ knife attack outside the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, was criticised for its poor timing and described as ‘disgraceful, disrespectful’ behaviour.
Activists also assembled outside Manchester Piccadilly Station – just four miles from the Heaton Park Synagogue – waving Palestine flags and holding placards reading ‘Freedom for Palestine’ and ‘Stop starving Gaza‘.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Ms Mahmood said those who gathered after the attack – which left two Jewish men dead – were behaving in a ‘fundamentally un-British’ and ‘dishonourable’ way.
And with further protests on the horizon, Ms Mahmood urged those who plan on protesting to show ‘some humanity’ and ‘give the Jewish community here a chance to process what has happened’.
As she called on protestors to allow Jews to ‘begin the grieving process’, the Home Secretary told GB News: ‘I am very disappointed that some of the organisers haven’t heeded the call to step back.
‘I would still call on people to show some love and some solidarity to the families of those who have been murdered and to our Jewish community.’
Saturday could see one of the largest-ever gatherings at Trafalgar Square in central London in support of Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terror group in July. More than 1,500 people have pledged to descend on London in support of the group, risking arrest as they do so.
Protestors are pictured after descending on Parliament Square, London, hours after two people were killed in a ‘barbaric’ knife attack outside the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged pro-Palestine protestors to step back ‘for at least a few days’ after the horrific Manchester synagogue attack
Their action will come less than a week after 66 people were arrested at a protest for supporting Palestine Action during the first day of Labour’s party conference in Liverpool.
The Chief Rabbi said so many people in the Jewish community ‘and well beyond it’ wonder why marches in support of the group are allowed to take place.
Sir Ephraim Mirvis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Some of them contain outright antisemitism, outright support for Hamas. Not every single person, however there is so much of this, which certainly is dangerous to many within our society.
‘You cannot separate the words on our streets, the actions of people in this way, and what inevitably results, which was yesterday’s terrorist attack.
‘The two are directly linked and therefore we call on the Government yet again, we’ve been doing so continuously, and yet again we say get a grip on these demonstrations, they are dangerous.’
Yesterday’s marches at Parliament Square saw clashes with police, with officers from the Met scuffling with protesters – some of whom wore face masks and scarves, while one person was pictured being escorted away outside Parliament.
The action at Parliament Square last night was seen as ill-timed by politicians and anti-semitism campaigners, including leader of the London Assembly Susan Hall.
Alex Hearn, co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism, also described the marches as ‘tone deaf’.
They came just hours after two men died in the terror attack, who were this morning named as Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both of whom were from Crumpsall.
Greater Manchester Police last night named the suspect, who was shot dead by armed police in the attack, as 35-year-old Jihad Al-Shamie.
They said he is a British citizen of Syrian descent and police added that they are ‘working to understand the motivation’, with the attack being treated as terror-related.
The Daily Mail revealed this morning that Al-Shamie came to the UK from Syria as a young child and grew up just around the corner from the site of the attack.
He had not been referred to the Government’s anti-terror programme Prevent or was known to police or the security services, Ms Mahmood said yesterday.
Ms Mahmood said she was was ‘surprised’ by Al-Shamie’s name when interviewed on LBC.
The Home Secretary was asked about the attacker’s name, Jihad Al-Shamie, which presenter Nick Ferrari translated as ‘struggle of the Syrian’.
She responded: ‘I was very surprised to discover that name myself. Actually, as a Muslim, I’ve never heard someone being called Jihad, but it is the name that he was born with – that has always been his name.’
Police have also arrested two men aged in their 30s and a woman in her 60s on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.
The attack, which took place on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar – saw a car driven at members of the public before the attacker emerged and started stabbing those congregated outside.
Police were seen scuffling with protestors at the south end of Whitehall following yesterday’s protest in Parliament Square
A woman was seen being led away by police during the protest in central London yesterday
Police officers were pictured leading a woman, wearing a face mask, away from the protest yesterday
Demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street last night as part of a protest against the detention of members of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which included Greta Thunberg
Sir Keir Starmer warned that anti-Semitism is ‘a hatred rising once again’ yesterday in the wake of the attack as he condemned the sickening violence in an address to the nation.
But he faced criticism from the government of Israel after the attack, which came less than a fortnight after the UK recognised a Palestinian state in a bid to force a ceasefire in Gaza.
Defending the Prime Minister, Ms Mahmood rejected the notion that recognising Palestine has emboldened those who are anti-semitic.
Speaking on Times Radio, she said: ‘The only person responsible for this devastating attack on our Jewish community is the attacker himself.
‘The police have made three additional arrests, and it’s important that they are allowed to continue with their investigations and our process of justice is allowed to take its course. That is separate to what is happening in the Middle East.
‘The work of this Government since the day we were elected has been to put our shoulder to the wheel in the diplomatic efforts in difficult and delicate conversations that are designed to try and bring an end to that devastating war.
‘Far too many lives have been lost. We want to see a secure and safe state of Israel alongside a state of Palestine.’
