Thousands of protesters marched in UK on Saturday to show solidarity for Palestinians and demand an immediate end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
In a statement issued by the Met Police, they said that there were pockets of disorder and some instances of hate speech during the demonstrations and the five officers suffered minor injuries.
Robert Jenrick, on Sunday morning, spoke to Sky News where he stated that chanting jihad on the streets of London during the protest is completely reprehensible and unacceptable.
Waving of the Palestinian flag is considered illegitimate
Image Source – Yahoo News UK
He said that waving the Palestinian flag is considered as illegitimate as it intends to glorify the act of terrorism. The chanting of slogans “from the river to the sea, Palestinians will be free” is an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world.
Robert Jenrick, the UK immigrant minister has commissioned the officials to consider revoking Visas and expelling the foreign students who praise Hamas
There is no offense in chanting jihad but the word has many different meanings, so we need to recognize the fact that language could be interpreted by the people in a negative way which will have a divisive impact.
UK Government is discouraging repetition
The UK government is discouraging the repetition of similar chanting and Mr Jenrick stated that this is unacceptable and he never wants to see such scenes which are inciting terrorist violence and it needs to be taken with the full force of law
Image Source – JNS. org The minister also said that beyond legality, the issue also highlighted the question of values. There should be a consensus in this country that chanting words like jihad is completely wrong and they never want to see that in their country.
Meanwhile, British transport police said that investigations are going on after the viral videos of the London protest they said that the footage circulating on social media suggests that the chants were led by a driver of a train in London leading to free Palestinian Chants for protesters to demonstrate
He further added that the protesters were arrested under terrorist legislation and they would do everything to protect the British Jews. He condemned the act of intimidating Jewish people by celebrating the Hamas attack.
Image Source – News 18
Robert Jenrick said that the issue was an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service as some arrests have been made under terrorist legislation.
He was also asked by the reporters about the possibility of establishing a scheme for taking Palestinian refugees but he said at the present movement, the priority is to simply get the British nationals out of Gaza and to ensure humanitarian aids
