Some demonstrators waved Israeli and British flags.
The protest comes a day after tens of thousands of protesters marched in London on Saturday to demand a full ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where a temporary ceasefire is currently in place.
Anti-Semitic incidents have increased in the UK since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which sparked the latest conflict in the Gaza Strip.
“The hatred must go. There can be no hatred on one side or the other,” 69-year-old pensioner Michael Jennings told the AFP news agency as the march outside the Royal Palace of Justice began.
Demonstrators, joined by former prime minister Boris Johnson, held signs reading “Zero tolerance for anti-Semitism” as they marched outside parliament.
They also showed pictures of Israelis and foreigners kidnapped by Hamas militants.
“Peace Please”
“We are here to support Israel. We came to ask for the release of all the hostages,” 52-year-old Debby Goldberg, wrapped in an Israeli flag, told AFP.
“We are here asking for peace because we want this nightmare to end,” added D. Goldberg, an Israeli citizen originally from Argentina.
Omer Plotniarz, a 37-year-old music therapist, said he was so worried about anti-Semitism that he did not send his wife and child to the march.
“We are not here to hate people. We are not here to call for killing. On October 7, we woke up to a new reality and we are all traumatized by it,” he told AFP.
O. Plotniarz and other protesters carried stickers that read: “Our love is stronger than your hate.”
“We just want to come home and find our babies, wives, brothers, sisters, everyone who came home,” added O. Plotniarz.
A third group of Hamas hostages is expected to be released on Sunday, the third day of the short-lived truce.
According to Israeli authorities, on October 7, Hamas and other Palestinian armed attackers took about 240 hostages and killed 1,200 in Israel in bloody attacks. people, mostly civilians.
Israel responded to the October 7 attack with massive bombings and ground operations in the Gaza Strip, during which, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, nearly 15,000 people have already died. people, including thousands of children.
The Jewish charity Community Security Trust (CST) recorded at least 1,324 anti-Semitic incidents in the 40 days between the first Hamas attack and November 15.
This is more than in 1984, when incidents began to be recorded, and more than last year during the same period, when 217 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded.
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2024-09-01 03:44:12
