Anti-Israel rally organizers spurn UK police's plea to shelve it after synagogue attack

Police say postponing Saturday’s London protest would let cops focus on securing Jewish, Muslim communities in wake of deadly Yom Kippur attack, but anti-Israel activists unmoved

Organizers of a protest against the UK’s ban on the Palestine Action group rejected a plea from London police to postpone their rally in the wake of a deadly terror attack on a Manchester synagogue over Yom Kippur on Thursday.

The terrorist, Jihad al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, rammed his car into people outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, and then began stabbing them, killing two members of the Jewish community and seriously injuring four before he was shot dead by police on the scene.

Postponing the planned Saturday protest would have allowed law enforcement to focus on protecting Jewish and Muslim communities in the wake of the attack, police said in their letter to the organizers obtained by The Guardian.

However, the organizing group Defend Our Juries rejected the police’s request and stated that they would proceed with their weekend demonstration, which is expected to draw a massive crowd.

Police said the London demonstration would require a “significant policing plan” enlisting hundreds of officers, thereby detracting from efforts to step up protective security in Jewish and Muslim communities in the attack’s aftermath.

“Your previous large-scale events and other concurrent protests place a significant pressure on policing and draw officers away from the communities they serve to be in central London,” the Metropolitan police wrote in its letter to the activist group.

Postponing the demonstration would allow police to dedicate resources to ensuring “Jewish Londoners can be as reassured as is possible during the Jewish high holy days, and that Muslim communities can be protected against those who may exploit these tragic events,” the letter continued.

Members of the Armed Forces work at a Bomb Disposal lorry parked inside a Police cordon near the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025 (Oli Scarff / AFP)

In a response to police, Defend Our Juries urged officers to “prioritize protecting the community rather than arresting those peacefully holding signs in opposition to the absurd and draconian ban of a domestic direct action group.”

While condemning the Manchester attack, the activist group insisted that it is up to law enforcement to decide whether it wants to dispatch police to secure the protest.

A bomb disposal technician collects evidence near the body of a man, believed to be the terrorist, at the scene of a deadly attack outside a synagogue, in north Manchester, Britain, October 2, 2025. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)

“It appears the political oversight in proscribing Palestine Action, which aimed to save lives in Palestine, is taking away from the police protecting the community from those who seek to take lives,” their letter continued.

Palestine Action, a direct action group that targets Israel-linked companies in Britain, was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July, making it a crime to be a member.

Membership in the organization carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. More than 1,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of Palestine Action.

UK interior minister: ‘Show some humanity’

Britain’s interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, said Friday she was “very disappointed to see those protests go ahead last night.”

“I think that behavior is fundamentally un-British… I think it’s dishonorable,” she told Sky News.

Mahmood said she understood the strength of feeling held by all sides on the conflict in Gaza, but said it was important that it not spill over into tensions on British streets.

“I would call on everybody who is considering protest in the next day or two to just take a step back and to show some humanity and some love towards a community that is grieving,” she said.

Britain’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood speaks to members of the media near to Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025, following an attack at the synagogue. (Oli SCARFF / AFP)

Kemi Badenoch, who leads the UK’s Conservative Party, said there is “far too much tolerance” for rhetoric at anti-Israel protests that could encourage violence against Jews.

“I think the calls to ‘globalize the intifada’ have been disgraceful,” she told PA Media, a UK- and Ireland-focused news agency.

“We’ve seen people using those words on placards around Westminster. That’s what ‘globalizing the intifada’ looks like. It means killing Jewish people.”

Badenoch also took issue with “people talking about a genocide in Israel, something that is not the case. This is the sort of action that comes when people feel justified in their actions.”

The Conservative leader noted that “there are foreign conflicts all around the world,” but that “we don’t hear about them.”

Many people “are particularly focused on Israel. I think that that’s one of the reasons why we’ve seen attacks like this increase all around the world,” she said.