London Mayor Sadiq Khan told pro-Palestine activists that their protests were causing "hurt and fear" for the Jewish community of the British capital.
In a BBC Radio 4 program on Monday (Mar. 18), the mayor said that the demonstrators should carry out their protests in a "respectful" and "lawful" way.
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have staged weekly marches through the streets of London following Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Daily Mail reported.
However, there have been growing concerns that demonstrations and the exploding rates of antisemitism amid the crisis in the Middle East were creating "no-go zones" in London for Jewish people.
Khan neither condemned the protests nor called for them to stop but rather called for the participants to be "conscious" of how their actions might impact London's Jewish community.
"I respect fully the right for freedom of expression and free speech, but be cognizant and conscious that some of the things you are saying may be lawful, but it's causing real anguish, hurt and fear to our friends, neighbors and colleagues for no other reason than that they are Jewish," he said during the radio show.
Khan also stressed the importance of protesting for "living in a democracy" and said no lawmaker should call them to cease.
"Protest is intrinsic to living in a democracy," he added. But it should be lawful, peaceful, and safe. So we shouldn't say things that cause upset. Of course, you have a right to protest. Nobody should say you shouldn't protest; that's wrong."
Earlier this month, the Home Office's independent adviser, Robin Simcox, slammed the Government for letting extremists go "unchallenged for too long" and allowing them to "lurk just below the terrorism threshold."
Simcox said that the UK has a "permissive environment for radicalization developing that needs urgently addressing."
In addition, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak previously called for the Metropolitan Police to take tougher action against protesters, as he promised to deal with the "root causes" of the problem and ensure that "no extremist organizations or individuals are being lent legitimacy by their actions and interactions with [the] central government."
However, the Met Police's commissioner later defended the force's policing of protests, declaring that they "have to police the law as it is, not as others would wish it to be."
According to figures obtained by the Daily Mail, there were 4,103 antisemitic incidents in the UK last year, which was nearly double the previous record in 2021, covering all types of "hate" against Jewish people.
Last week, British Leveling Up Secretary Michael Gove unveiled a new definition of extremism, warning that divisions in the wake of Hamas's terror attack on Israel posed a "real risk" to British democracy. This meant that groups meeting the multi-pronged definition—even nonviolent ones—would be banned from receiving taxpayers' money and from contact with ministers or senior civil servants. Individuals were not included in the new definition.
