LONDON — Tens of thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators marched through central London on Saturday to protest against US President Donald Trump’s plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza.
Organisers said the march was the 24th major pro-Palestine protest in the UK since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), along with demonstrators from five other groups, gathered in Whitehall at noon on Saturday before marching to the US embassy in Nine Elms Lane, south-west London, where speeches were made.
Protesters marched holding Palestinian flags, signs and banners that read “Hands off Gaza”, “Stand up to Trump”, and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd”.
Speakers outside the embassy included former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who called on “the whole world” to reject Trump’s plan.
Recently, Trump announced a proposal to “take over” Gaza and forcibly expel its more than 2 million Palestinians.
Trump has also called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians – a proposal that has been met with widespread criticism and rejection from Arab countries and other allies while being condemned as an ethnic-cleansing plan.
In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Trump also said he would “own” Gaza and said it would be a “real estate development for the future”. Asked whether Palestinians would have the right to return, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t.”
“In the meantime, I would own this,” Trump – a former real estate developer – added, saying: “Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”
“I think it’s completely immoral, illegal, impractical and absurd,” 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos told the AFP news agency.
“You simply cannot deport two million people, especially that the surrounding countries already said that they wouldn’t take them, not out of the goodness of their heart but because it would destabilise those countries. So, it’s not going to happen but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame.” — QNN
