British Home Secretary sparks fury by accusing police of favouring pro-Palestinian protests

(Patria) - Britain's Home Secretary accused the country's biggest police force on Thursday of being more lenient towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators than other groups, AP reported.

In a highly unusual attack on the police, Minister Suella Braverman said that the London police were ignoring law-breaking by the "pro-Palestinian mob".

She described demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as "hate marchers".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under increasing pressure to sack Braverman, a divisive figure but popular with the authoritarian wing of the ruling Conservative Party. Sunak's spokesperson said her statement was not approved by the Prime Minister's office, but that Sunak still had full confidence in the Home Secretary.

Pro-Palestinian protests have been held in London and other British cities every weekend since the start of the war. The government has criticised organisers for planning a march on Saturday because it is Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War I, when many commemorate war victims.

The march is the day before the main commemoration on Sunday, when King Charles III, senior politicians, diplomats, military leaders and veterans will attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph war memorial in central London.

Sunak had criticised the planned protests for the weekend as "provocative" and "disrespectful". But after calling Police Chief Mark Rowley for talks on Wednesday, Sunak said the government supported "the right to peaceful protest. And the test of that freedom is whether our commitment to it can survive the discomfort and frustration of those who wish to exercise it, even if we disagree with them."

This seemed to end the dispute, but Braverman escalated it with an article in The Times newspaper. She accused the police of being softer on pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than on right-wing demonstrators or football hooligans.

She said there was "a perception that senior police officers have favourites when it comes to demonstrators" and called demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza "an affirmation of the primacy of certain groups", particularly Islamic extremists, "of the kind we have become accustomed to seeing in Northern Ireland", which clearly refers to demonstrations by Irish republican groups.

More than 3,600 people died in 30 years of violence involving Irish republicans, British loyalists and British security forces in Northern Ireland. Many politicians there called the minister's comparison insensitive and inaccurate.

Colum Eastwood, leader of the Irish nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, said Braverman had shown "ignorance of the conditions faced by the civilian population in Gaza, ignorance of the role of the police, ignorance of the complex history and tradition of marching and protesting in Northern Ireland."

"She has managed to offend almost everyone – which is no mean feat in a divided society," he added.