A 50,000 person “March Against Anti-Semitism” happened in London Sunday, Nov. 26. “London’s Metropolitan Police received reports of 554 anti-Semitic offenses between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, up from 44 a year earlier, a more than tenfold increase. Reports of Islamophobic offenses almost tripled to 220 in the same period,” reported Reuters. “The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, which focuses on the concerns of Jewish people in Britain, said the gathering was the biggest of its kind since the so-called Battle of Cable Street in 1936 when British fascists clashed with opponents in an area of east London where many Jews lived at the time.”
But what was actually going on, whatever the intent of many of the demonstrators? “Tens of thousands of people including former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson gathered in London on Sunday for a march against anti-Semitism, a day after large crowds turned out for a pro-Palestinian rally,” said the Guardian. “Associated Press reports that Johnson was joined by the U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and other senior government officials at the march to express solidarity with the Jewish community.” Various Anglo-American outlets downsized the Nov. 25 “pro-Palestinian” demonstration, which, even according to some London media outlets that reported on it at the time, was in the “hundreds of thousands,” to “45,000 people,” and then reported the Sunday demo at 50,000.
