London Mayor Sadiq Khan is coming under increasing pressure to block the planned anti-Israel al-Quds Day march, scheduled to take over the streets of the capital on Sunday.
The annual event claims it “unites for the freedom of the oppressed in Palestine and beyond.” It is co-organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commissionis and is timed to coincide with the end of Ramadan and features a heavy presence of the infamous Hezbollah flag.
Hezbollah is an illegal, proscribed, anti-Semitic terrorist organisation and its flags are flown to honour the terrorist group sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state. The group is designated as a terror organization in its entirety by the Arab League, Bahrain, Canada, France, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United States.
This year’s march will go ahead in the shadow of news that terror attack fears have forced organisers of Britain’s largest pro-Israel event to scrap plans for this year’s edition of A Night to Honour Israel.
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, an online petition has been launched calling for Mayor Khan to intervene. Signatories to the petition now number 7,900 people and they agree with the proposition stated:
“After the terrible recent terrorist events in Manchester and London this display of extremism has no place on the streets of the UK… Allowing this march to go ahead will send a worrying message to the UK’s Jewish community and call into question the commitment of the Mayor of London to eradicate extremism and anti-Semitism.”
Mayor Khan told the Jewish News he is aware of the concerns of London’s Jewish community about the march and raised them with the Metropolitan Police.
Speaking to the paper at Jewish Care’s annual dinner, Mr. Khan said: “I have passed those concerns on to the Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who has taken them on board.
“I am meeting the commissioner on Friday and this is on the agenda.”
He confirmed “people have made representations to me about previous demonstrations, about flags being thrown down.”
A spokesman for the Community Security Trust (CST) has previously told Jewish News: “We have long argued that it is deeply unacceptable for Hezbollah flags to be flown here in the UK, especially on this annual outpouring of hatred.
“Hezbollah itself makes no distinction between its political and military wings and the flag includes an assault rifle, so there is no mistaking what is going on here.”
Al Quds Day had its beginnings as an annual day chosen by the late Ayatollah Khomeini to call for Israel to be destroyed.
Mr. Khan was asked to last year to back a request for Hezbollah to be classified as a proscribed terrorist organisation. He refused.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.