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Far-right groups and football hooligans are preparing to descend on London on Armistice Day as hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march through the capital.
The Palistinian Solidarity Campaign (PCS) said it would march alongside activists for the fourth weekend in a row and call on Israel to agree to a ceasefire following the bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Commemorative events will take place on Saturday and Sunday, leading to Interior Minister Suella Braverman calling on the Met Police to ban the march.
The coalition of groups, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and the Muslim Association of Britain, insisted they would continue the demonstration demanding an immediate ceasefire.
The planned route does not go near the cenotaph on Saturday.
Now English Defense League founder Tommy Robinson has spoken out against the demonstration, saying: “British men are mobilizing for Saturday to be in London” to “show up our government and our police and Hamas and everyone who is on.” “To show the whole world that they are saying ‘Britain did it’, that there is resistance.”
The Democratic Football Lads Alliance, a right-wing organization that uses football fan networks to spread Islamophobic hatred, has also issued a call to arms on social media.
A post on the group’s Facebook page said: “Veterans have contacted us asking for our support as far-left and pro-Palestinian supporters have threatened to disrupt the Remembrance Day parade.”
“We call on all soccer boys across the country to join us and stand side by side with our veterans who fought for our freedom.”
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a convicted fraudster, joined the British National Party (BNP) in the mid-2000s.
Tommy Robinson was fined £900 for failing to appear at a High Court hearing to be questioned about his finances (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)
(PA cable)
He left the group in 2013 and left the UK in 2020 to live in Spain.
He is now understood to be in the UK and posted dozens of pro-Israel tweets after Elon Musk unbanned his X account last week.
In a video he called for people to show up in London to show that there is a “resistance” on our “holy day” and that “the silent majority has had enough”.
Another video released yesterday said people walking in central London must behave with “respect” but “be prepared to defend ourselves if we need to defend ourselves.”
Police officers in front of Britain First and EDL demonstrators on the Embankment in London, April 2017
(PA)
According to Hope Not Hate, an anti-racist campaign group, other disparate groups such as football hooligans could also be mobilizing in London, leading to fears that these fringe groups could be difficult for police to mobilize.
The group talked The guard that football hooligans linked to Patriotic Alternative, whose members have links to the BNP, have demanded a presence in London.
The Democratic Football Lads Alliance, which has publicly supported Robinson in the past and been accused of spreading Islamophobia, said it would be in London on Saturday and Sunday.
A post on the group’s Facebook page said: “Veterans have contacted us asking for our support as far-left and pro-Palestinian supporters have threatened to disrupt the Remembrance Day parade.”
“We call on all soccer boys across the country to join us and stand side by side with our veterans who fought for our freedom.”
Clashes break out between protesters and police during the Democratic Football Lads Alliance march in London in 2020
(PA)
The i newspaper reported that messages in an anti-Islam WhatsApp group with more than 1,000 members called on people to “defend themselves” against pro-Palestinian protesters and called them “Islamists.”
The National Front (NF), which was the driving force of fascist politics in Britain for decades, said it would march to the Cenotaph on Sunday afternoon.
Nick Lowles, CEO of HOPE not hate: “Parts of the far right are trying to mobilize against the pro-Palestinian demonstration taking place in central London this weekend. However, this is by no means a joint effort by all groups who want to travel to London on Saturday.
“It remains to be seen whether these groups have the power to mobilize in the way they were able to a few years ago.” Tommy Robinson, his followers, football hooligans and other far-right groups have failed to do so in recent years , to collect significant numbers, but their appetite for confrontation could pose a risk even with a small presence.”
Source : www.independent.co.uk