Hundreds of British Jews have signed a letter condemning the Metropolitan Police’s attempt to ban a Palestine march on spurious antisemitism grounds.

A Palestine demonstration focused on the BBC’s complicity in the Gaza genocide is planned for Saturday 18 January, starting at BBC Broadcasting House on Portland Place, west London. However on Thursday, the Met imposed a ban on marches gathering in Portland Place and the surrounding area, claiming that the march will seriously disrupt nearby synagogues and businesses.

On Monday, over 720 British Jews – which include professors Lynne Segal and Jacqueline Rose, lawyers Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC and Sir Stephen Sedley KC and two Holocaust survivors – claimed that the marches pose “no threat to Jews”, “thousands” of whom join them each week.

“There are no substantiated cases of synagogues or worshippers having been targeted in any way by march participants,” they wrote. Novara Media asked the Met whether any such incidents had been reported, but a spokesperson declined to comment. 

The police’s restrictions on the protest represent a high-water mark in the government’s attempt to crack down on the pro-Palestine movement. The significant backlash it has prompted suggests it may also be an overreach. Trade union leaders, MPs, human rights organisations and cultural figures have all publicly condemned the Met’s restrictions on the protest, while the march organisers say they will go ahead regardless.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the group organising the march, agreed the route with the Met in October but last Wednesday, the police reneged on the agreement, citing a risk of “serious disruption” to local synagogues (they did not specify which). 

The Met said that in taking its decision, it had considered “the cumulative impact of this prolonged period of protest [on] synagogues” since October 2023. Yet this is only the third time that BBC Broadcasting House has been used as a starting point, and none of the nearby synagogues are directly on the march route. 

“As Jews we are shocked at this brazen attempt to interfere with hard-won political freedoms by conjuring up an imaginary threat to Jewish freedom of worship,” the group of British Jews wrote in its joint letter.

The Met has selectively deployed its concern for Jewish life and worship since 7 October. In November 2023, its officers attempted to arrest a group of Jews holding a prayer service in solidarity with Palestine in Kings Cross station in central London. A year later, 79-year-old Haim Bresheeth, a child of Auschwitz interns, was arrested under terror laws after giving a speech at a London Palestine protest (he was released without charge).

The PSC claims that in a private meeting, the Met admitted having been lobbied by chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. The Met would not disclose to Novara Media whether it had met with Mirvis, a pro-Israel zealot who has previously referred to IDF soldiers as “our heroes” – however in December, the chief rabbi publicly stated that the police ought to reroute marches to avoid synagogues.

Since October 2023, several politicians and Jewish groups have insisted that the Palestine marches are antisemitic. In November 2023, then-home secretary Suella Braverman described demonstrators as “hate marchers”, a sentiment echoed on the front page of the Jewish Chronicle. In March 2024, the UK counter-extremism commissioner Robin Simcox claimed that the weekly marches were turning London into “a no-go zone for Jews” – a characterisation rejected by demonstrations’ Jewish bloc.

In April 2024, pro-Israel antisemitism campaigner Gideon Falter filmed his altercation with police at a Palestine demonstration in an attempt to highlight the marches’ supposed danger to Jews. The incident backfired, as it quickly became apparent that the incident had been staged.

While the argument that the marches as a whole threaten Jews has failed to convince, pro-Israel groups have shifted to complaining about the disruption posed to local synagogues.

“We are not calling for demonstrations to be banned and appreciate the Met has to balance the right to protest,” Claudia Mendoza, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the Times. “But we have worshippers who are afraid to go to services and are feeling intimidated by the noisy protests. We just want it to start away from the synagogue.”

These are not the first restrictions the Met has imposed on the weekly Palestine demonstrations that have taken place since October 2023, but they are the harshest. All of the marches have been subject to police conditions – however according to PSC director Ben Jamal, this is the first time that the “police have imposed conditions that basically make this [march] impossible” – since this march is specifically aimed at highlighting the role of the BBC.

Now, the PSC is calling the Met’s bluff. It says the protest will take place – though starting in Whitehall and finishing at Broadcasting House, reversing the current route.