UK: Suella Braverman condemned for new attack on police and pro-Palestine protesters

The UK's right-wing Home Secretary Suella Braverman has drawn widespread condemnation for a laying into pro-Palestine protesters and London's Metropolitan police in an article.

Braverman wrote an op-ed in The Times came after the London police force approved a demonstration in support of Gaza to go ahead on Saturday, which coincides with commemorations of Remembrance Day.

Previous weekend protests in London have seen up to 100,000 supporters gather in opposition to the war on Gaza, which has killed over 10,800 Palestinians. They were criticised by Braverman in her Times piece as "problematic".

The controversial minister went on to allege that some of the march organisers were linked to Hamas.

"I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza. They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups - particularly Islamists - of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland,” Braverman wrote. 

"Also disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster are the reports that some of Saturday’s march group organisers have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas."

Braverman also accused police officers of playing "favourites" with both Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestine supporters.

"Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law?" she said. 

Protests for Gaza have been largely peaceful, although Braverman has attacked pro-Palestine protesters before.

This week she sparked controversy by calling them "hate marchers" due to their opposition to Israel's attacks on civilians in Gaza.

Braverman continued: "If the march goes ahead this weekend, the public will expect to see an assertive and proactive approach to any displays of hate, breaches of conditions and general disorder."

🧵War on Gaza

👉Negotiations underway for three-day ceasefire as thousands flee Israeli strikes

🔴Live coverage: https://t.co/SDflHlMa0v pic.twitter.com/NqK17fEiIq

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) November 9, 2023

Braverman's comments have been condemned as being on the verge of racism and inflaming tensions.

The London Metropolitan Police’s ex chief superintendent Dal Babu said that he had been "flabbergasted" by her remarks.

“Some of the things that Suella Braverman is saying as a brown woman would not be tolerated if it was said by a white man or a white woman,” Babu told Sky News. 

"Some of the things she said about Pakistani men, some of the things she said about hate marches. I’m just flabbergasted by some of the conversations and some of the comments that she’s been making." 

Victoria Derbyshire, "What do you say to Home Secretary Suella Braverman?"

Layla Moran, "Suella Braverman, I'm afraid to say, is stoking division. and I think she should be ashamed of herself" pic.twitter.com/oMG3mv8wjL

— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) November 8, 2023

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said that Braverman was "stoking divisions" and she should be "ashamed". 

"To suggest that every single person on the march like that... are somehow Islamists and lumping them all in quite candid language is irresponsible," Moran said in an interview with BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire. 

Saturday's National March for Palestine will see campaigners demonstrate across central London, and have planned to make way to the US embassy to oppose the Biden administration's support for Israel in its indiscriminate attacks on Gaza. 

Hundreds of Palestinians are being killed by Israel's strikes on Gaza every day, most of them women and children.

The death toll has now risen to 10,812, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. .