‘These are hate marches’: Home secretary hits out at pro-Palestinian protests as UK terror threat level remains ‘substantial’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has described street demonstrations in support of Palestinians as “hate marches”.
It comes as five people have been charged after a pro-Palestinian protest took place in London on Saturday – the second weekend in a row during which marches have been held.
When questioned about the demonstrations, after an emergency COBRA meeting chaired by Rishi Sunak, Ms Braverman said: “To my mind there is only one way to describe those marches: they are hate marches.
“What we’ve seen over the last few weekends, we’ve seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map.”
Israel-Gaza latest: Hamas releases hostage video labelled ‘cruel’ by Netanyahu
She said police are concerned there are a “large number of bad actors who are deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold in a way which you or I or the vast majority of the British people would consider to be utterly odious”.
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Thousands protest for ceasefire
In response, Labour backbencher, Azal Khan, said the home secretary’s labelling of the marches was “disingenuous, dangerous and deeply contradictory to the right we all hold to protest”.
The number of people gathering in the capital in protest at the Israel-Hamas war over the last two weekends has totalled about 100,000.
On Saturday, the force arrested a total of nine people – two on suspicion of assaulting police officers and seven for alleged public order offences – as Gaza is besieged by Israel and coming under aerial bombardment.
Two other women were held on suspicion of inciting racial hatred on Sunday morning following an incident in Trafalgar Square.
UK terror threat level not being hiked
Following discussions on Monday, the terror threat level in the UK is not yet being raised.
Ms Braverman said the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) is keeping the threat level from international terrorism at “substantial”.
The decision was made despite Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley warning on Sunday that terrorism is being “accelerated” by events in the Middle East, as he raised concerns about “state threats from Iran”.
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Anger was directed towards Sir Mark’s police force after it said it had not identified any offences from a clip of a protest in which a member of the crowd could be heard chanting the word “jihad”.
The chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has also been used.
Some interpret it as a call of support for the Palestinian people, and others claim it is a demand for the dismantling of Israel, with the Anti-Defamation League saying it is an antisemitic slogan.
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‘UK could be sharper in how we deal with extremism’
Ms Braverman has also previously branded the chant as antisemitic and urged police to take a “zero tolerance approach”, while Downing Street didn’t go quite as far, saying it was “a deeply offensive chant to many” on Monday.
Sir Mark added that while the UK has robust laws in dealing with hate crime, there is a “gap” when it comes to extremism.
Ms Braverman said that if there was a need for the law to change, she “would not hesitate to act”.
Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to crypto self-custody and privacy in financial transactions.
“I’m a freedom maximalist,” Peirce told The Rollup podcast on Friday, while saying that self-custody of assets is a fundamental human right. She added:
“Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets.”
Peirce added that online financial privacy should be the standard. “It has become the presumption that if you want to keep your transactions private, you’re doing something wrong, but it should be exactly the opposite presumption,” she said.
The comments came as the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill that includes provisions for self-custody, anti-money laundering(AML) regulations, and asset taxonomy, is delayed until 2026, according to Senator Tim Scott.
Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) challenge Bitcoin’s self-custody ethos
Many large Bitcoin (BTC) whales and long-term holders are pivoting from self-custody to ETFs to reap the tax benefits and hassle-free management of owning crypto in an investment vehicle.
“We are witnessing the first decline in self-custodied Bitcoin in 15 years,” Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, the head of research at crypto exchange Uphold, said.
Hiesboeck attributed the shift to the SEC approving in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs in July, which allowed authorized holders to exchange crypto for ETF shares and vice versa without triggering a taxable event, unlike cash-settled ETFs.
“A move away from the self-custody mantra of ‘not your keys, not your coins’ is another nail in the coffin of the original crypto spirit,” Hiesboeck added.
In February, notable Bitcoin analyst and investor PlanB, the developer of the BTC stock-to-flow model, announced that he transferred his Bitcoin to ETFs to alleviate the “hassle” of private key management.
PlanB’s announcement caused an outcry in the Bitcoin community, as many voiced concerns that handing over custody to a third party clashed with Bitcoin’s core values.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.
The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.
Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.
The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.
Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.
Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.
The co-founders have had a strained relationship since setting up the party. Pic: Your Party
The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.
“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.
Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.
The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.
The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.
Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.
Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.
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The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.
Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.
Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.
Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.
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