Anton Parocki,an organiser for today’s protests,told the BBC: ‘What I think is insensitive is that there has been two years of genocide.’
‘Conflating that [actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu with Judaism is actually antisemitic.’
A United Nations commission investigating the war in Gaza said last month that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians.
The report detailed the deaths of civilians amid heavy Israeli bombings and the destruction of hospitals,schools,cultural landmarks and religious sites. Elsewhere,global experts have declared that more than half a million people in Gaza were experiencing a ‘man-made’ famine.
Israel has denied both.
Another student,Muhlisa Husainova,19,said that people were protesting for ‘human rights’ today.
The march wound through central London,where several top university campuses are (Picture: AFP)
Students protesting outside UCL (Picture: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
Husainova said: ‘We are for humans,we don’t want to kill humans. This is what we’re protesting; we’re not protesting anything else. We’re not protesting to hate any other group of people.’
KCL student Hasan,18,told the i: ‘I understand why people might not be comfortable with the day.
‘But if you look at just the numbers of people that have been dying,I think it’s important to see where the deaths have been happening the most.’
Not all students agreed. A small counter-protest of about four people was held on the Strand,with one holding a flag reading: ‘Jewish and Proud.’
Miles,a Jewish student at KCL,said to the i that the last two years have been ‘difficult’ for Jewish people.
He said: ‘The war should end,aid should go into Gaza,the hostages should come back. Just don’t protest today.
‘They don’t want anyone to live in peace and security. They just want to protest on 7 October,to be performative.’
Some students held a long banner with the names of Palestinian youngsters killed by Israel (Picture: AP)
The banner stretched across the KCL Strand campus entrance (Picture: Lucy North/PA Wire)
Israeli and Hamas negotiators were holding talks in Egypt yesterday about a trade of Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
A police spokesperson told Metro: ‘Officers were deployed to the Inter-University March,which began at King’s College near The Strand and ended at SOAS University of London.
‘Conditions were put in place and officers remained with the group until the protest concluded.
‘There was one arrest for common assault. No further incidents were reported.’
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