Highlights:
- Starmer urges students not to join pro-Palestinian protests planned for Tuesday.
- Jewish Bloc for Palestine accuses government of “weaponising fear and grief”.
- Manchester synagogue attack left two people dead on Thursday.
- Protests and vigils planned across multiple UK cities.
PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer has called on students not to take part in pro-Palestinian protests planned on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, saying they were disrespectful.
Students from several London universities were due to walk out of classes at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) before marching through central London.
Other rallies and events, including vigils, were also planned in cities such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Sheffield and Manchester. In Manchester, an attack outside a synagogue on Thursday left two people dead — one killed in the attack and another fatally wounded, likely by armed police.
Writing in The Times newspaper, Starmer said regular pro-Palestinian protests had been used by some as a "despicable excuse to attack British Jews for something over which they have absolutely no responsibility".
He added: "That is a total loss of empathy and humanity."
Referring to Tuesday’s planned demonstrations, he wrote: "This is not who we are as a country.
"It's un-British to have so little respect for others. And that's before some of them decide to start chanting hatred towards Jewish people all over again."
The Jewish Bloc for Palestine said on Saturday that the government was trying "to weaponise the fear and grief of our community by resurrecting a slur — that those protesting for Palestine represent a danger to Jews".
In a separate statement on the anniversary, Starmer said the past two years had seen "rising antisemitism" in the UK, including the car ramming and stabbing attack in Manchester, which happened on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
"This is a stain on who we are, and this country will always stand tall and united against those who wish harm and hatred upon Jewish communities," Starmer said.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 47 of whom remain in Gaza. Of those, the Israeli military says 25 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,160 Palestinians over the past two years, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
"Since that awful day, so many have endured a living nightmare," Starmer said, pledging to continue efforts to secure the release of British hostages still held by Hamas.
The prime minister, who last month announced the UK would recognise a Palestinian state alongside other allies, also welcomed the US plan "towards peace in the Middle East".
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations went ahead in Britain over the weekend despite government appeals for protesters not to gather following the Manchester attack.
Activist group Defend Our Juries said linking calls to end pro-Palestinian protests with the Manchester attack was "wrongly conflating the actions of the Israeli state with all Jews".
"Jewish people around the world are not responsible for Israel’s crimes and there are many Jewish people who do not support the actions of the Israeli state," said Zoe Cohen of DOJ on Saturday.
On Sunday, around 3,000 people gathered in central London for a commemorative event marking the October 7 anniversary, waving Israeli and Union Jack flags and carrying posters of hostages.
(With inputs from agencies)
