'WE'RE VERY WELCOME' - HAS A VIRAL VIDEO CHANGED THE MOOD ON MARCH?
The Guardian Weekly|May 03, 2024
A woman is standing next to a group of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in Trafalgar Square in London, live-streaming her challenge to the pro-Palestine marchers on her phone. "Why will none of you condemn Hamas?" she repeats several times.
James Tapper
'WE'RE VERY WELCOME' - HAS A VIRAL VIDEO CHANGED THE MOOD ON MARCH?

Most of the marchers ignore her, preferring instead to show their appreciation for the group of 11 survivors who oppose Israel's actions in the war in Gaza.

But this is a march of thousands of people and one protester, probably in his 50s, takes the bait, yelling about "you bloody evangelical Christians" and knocks her phone out of her hands as she turns to film him. "Where are the police?" she calls, and in the commotion ends up on the ground, cutting her leg on some broken glass. Some of the marchers come to her help, and she dabs the blood with a tissue, then goes back to her livestream. She refuses to give her name, just that she "represents the kingdom of God".

Does this show London is a no-go zone for people who disagree with the marchers? Or, if even someone apparently trying to provoke a response can stand in relative safety, is that evidence, as the Holocaust survivors group hopes to show, that this is a peaceful protest where Jews should feel safe?

The survivors group led the march when it set off last Saturday, the 13th time demonstrators have gathered in central London to oppose the war in Gaza after Hamas's 7 October attacks.

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