People sing and dance at a commemorative event organised by the Jewish community to honour the lives lost in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in Trafalgar Square, London. Photo / Henry Nichols, AFP
People sing and dance at a commemorative event organised by the Jewish community to honour the lives lost in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in Trafalgar Square, London. Photo / Henry Nichols, AFP
Around 3000 people on Sunday gathered in central London to mark two years since the deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The rally came after nearly 500 people were arrested on Saturday at a pro-Palestinian protest, also held in London’s Trafalgar Square, and three days aftera deadly attack on a synagogue in northern Manchester.
People waving Israeli and Union Jack flags and holding posters of hostages converged on the square for the commemorative event organised by The Board of Deputies of British Jews (BDBJ).
Participants sang songs as photographs of the victims were shown on a giant screen.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis led a prayer for the release of the remaining hostages.
There was silence as the names of British citizens, said to number 13, who died were read out.
Keith Black, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, told the crowd the Manchester attack had shown “how deadly this virulent antisemitism has become”.
“Our streets have been filled with protesters screaming Jew hatred, our students had faced relentless waves of abuse on campus,” he said.
“A new concept called ‘ambient anti-Semitism’ has entered our vocabulary, a prevailing undercurrent across society, across a society that has turned against Israel, in consequence, against us as Jews.”
In a video message, British-Israeli former hostage Emily Damari urged the crowd “to use your voice” to secure the hostages’ release adding: “We can never give up on them.”
Another survivor, Shaun Lemel, who had been at the Nova Festival, recalled the day “everything changed” when, within minutes, things went from “an epic music festival to the most horrific battlefield”.
Security was especially tight after Thursday’s attack in Manchester in which two people died and three were seriously injured, heightening safety fears among the Jewish community in Britain.
People gather for a commemorative event organised by the Jewish community to honour the lives lost in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in Trafalgar Square, London. Photo / Henry Nichols, AFP
‘Completely unacceptable’
The event came before Tuesday’s anniversary of the attacks on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
A 14-year-old London schoolboy at the rally with his father told AFP he was there because “the way that Britain has been treating hatred and violence towards Jews is completely unacceptable”.
He said he felt scared “100 per cent” to show he was Jewish in public and always tucked his Star of David necklace into his shirt.
The teenager said he had had abuse shouted at him in the street and his brother had been spat at.
“When I first went to [secondary] school I felt completely safe,” he said, adding that things changed after the war in Gaza began.
Another participant, Alison Harvey, 70, a former journalist from West London, wiped away tears as she watched images of the victims flash up on the screen.
“People are conflating [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the politics of Israel with Jews… but all the hatred, it’s getting everyone nowhere. What’s happening in Gaza is absolutely appalling.”
She said she had been told that “people are upset about Gaza”.
“Well, of course they are upset. I’m upset about Gaza.”
