Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been slammed by critics after she branded pro-Palestine protests in the UK as "hate marches" on Monday.
In a series of comments aimed at supporters who showed solidarity with Gaza, the home secretary claimed that "a large number of bad actors" were "deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold".
After an emergency COBRA meeting chaired by Rishi Sunak, Braverman was questioned on the pro-Palestine demonstrations in motion nationwide – with the most recent protest that took place last Saturday attended by some 500,000 people.
"We've seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people – the single loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map," Braverman said.
"To my mind, there is only one way to describe those marches – they are hate marches."
Braverman said that police forces were concerned that there were a "large number of bad actors who are deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold" that she considered as "utterly odious".
The home secretary also condemned use of the "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" chant.
Braverman emphasised that while the police do operate independently, but argued that "the police must take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism".
Following Braverman’s outwardly anti-Palestinian comments, an array of critics hit back at her for fuelling "inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric".
Akiko Hart, Interim Director of Liberty, says that Braverman showed a "failure of leadership" after branding pro-Palestine marches as 'hate marches', BBC Newsnight reported.
"The Home Secretary talking [on Monday] about the pro-Palestine marches as hate marches was inflammatory and hate rhetoric –and actually a real failure in leadership I would say," Hart said. "At a time when what is needed is thought and care and scrutiny."
Political commentator Bushra Shaikh also reacted to Braverman’s words in a nearly three-minute video posted on 'X', adding that "Islamophobia is at an all-time high".
"I have children like so many other Muslims and we have families. You are not going to create this narrative about us," Shaikh said.
"Our parents and our grandparents- they just kept quiet- they didn’t say anything. But you know what? Our generation- the next generation- are well informed and well educated. You might have gotten away with it all these years but no more. We will not stand with political parties that do not represent us correctly."
Braverman’s crackdown on pro-Palestine sentiment extended to attempting to delegalise waving the Palestinian flag as a criminal offence and a form of terrorism.
Britain has openly supported Israel's right to defend itself following Hamas’ surprise attack on 7 October that Israel said killed 1,400 people and took hundreds into captivity.
Since then, Israel has launched a relentless bombing campaign killing over 8,525 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including over 3,400 children.
Israel has also imposed a total siege on the impoverished enclave, banning fuel, water and food from entering.