BRITAIN-ISRAEL/DOWNING STREET SCUFFLES Protesters scuffle near Downing Street ahead of Netanyahu visit

Record ID: 141387

  • Title: BRITAIN-ISRAEL/DOWNING STREET SCUFFLES Protesters scuffle near Downing Street ahead of Netanyahu visit
  • Date: 9th September 2015
  • Summary: WOMAN HOLDING SIGN OF NETANYAHU WITH DEVIL HORNS
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAC6BAD8BOLAB2ZNNJ0HBHPU8NG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Some 300 demonstrators waving flags and "Free Palestine" banners staged a noisy protest in central London on Wednesday (September 9) against the two-day visit to Britain this week of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
    Minor scuffles with police broke out as they surged into the main road outside the Downing Street residence of British Prime Minister David Cameron who will hold talks with Netanyahu on Thursday (September 10).
    107,000 people in Britain have signed an online petition for Netanyahu's arrest after last year's fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
    "He needs to be arrested. This is evidence of of war crimes. He's the one who ordered this," said Marjorie Boukhari, a nurse attending the protest.
    She also said that the British prime minister's disclosure to parliament that the Royal Air Force had killed British Islamic State operatives in Syria with accurate drone strikes proved that Netanyahu had targeted civilians in Gaza last summer.
    19-year-old Palestinian born British citizen Sara Elkateep had come to protest against the Israeli prime minister.
    "I've come here to make sure that Netanyahu knows he's unwelcome and that we are very unhappy with the fact that our prime minister is dealing with such a terrorist country that constantly bombs Gaza, West Bank, constantly builds settlements on Palestinian land," she said.
    A short distance away in a separate cordoned off area, about 50 pro-Israel demonstrators waved the Israeli flag and chanted in support of the Jewish state.
    Arieh Miller, the executive director of the Zionist Federation, who helped to organise the counter-demonstration accused the pro-Palestinian protesters of anti-semitism.
    "If I disagree with Prime Minister Cameron, that doesn't make me anti-British. That me having a political view. Disagreeing with Netanyahu - there is nothing wrong with that at all, but disagreeing with the simple existence of the only Jewish state in the world - that is where I draw the line," he said.
    Another protester, Barbara Pearce from north London, asked why the protesters were targeting Netanyahu and not Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
    Britain says visiting heads of state have immunity from legal process and thus Netanyahu cannot be arrested.
    In a statement, the government said on Tuesday (September 8), "We recognise that the conflict in Gaza last year took a terrible toll.
    "However the prime minister was clear on the UK's recognition of Israel's right to take proportionate action to defend itself, within the boundaries of international humanitarian law."
    More than 500 children were among the 2,100 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, who were killed in last year's conflict. Seventy-three Israelis, almost all soldiers, were killed.
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