The head of the Metropolitan police, Commissioner Mark Rowley, declared that his forces will be “absolutely ruthless” during pro-Palestine protests, but said prosecutions would only happen when the law is broken.

During his interview on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips On Sunday show, Rowley claimed that “many more” arrests are due in the coming weeks.

“We will robustly enforce up to the line of the law,” he said, adding: “We’re going to be absolutely ruthless and we have been and you’ll see many more arrests over the next week or so.”

This statement comes a day after around 100,000 pro-Palestinian activists marched through downtown London demanding that the British government call a ceasefire after "Israel's" military expanded its air and ground strikes on Gaza. 

It is worth noting that the Met was called out by ministers for not arresting protestors after “jihad” was shouted at a protest. In response, the Met stated that using the term was not against the law.

Rowley stated in his interview that he supports a review into the legal definition of extremism and how to police it as ministers urge a “stricter clampdown” since laws currently in place were “robust enough”.

Read next: UK's SOAS suspends students over Palestine solidarity rally

Related News

Nazzal: Netanyahu violating Gaza ceasefire, resistance holds firm

Israeli settlers launch attacks in Ramallah as IOF arrests 18

“There is scope to be much sharper in how we deal with extremism within this country,” he said. “The law was never designed to deal with extremism, there’s a lot to do with terrorism and hate crime but we don’t have a body of law that deals with extremism and that is creating a gap.”

Laws under personal measurements

Meanwhile, Michelle Donelan, the science, innovation and technology secretary and one of the ministers, said the current laws were “robust enough”.

“We believe that the current law is fit for purpose. We have the Terrorism Act, the Public Order Act – these can be deployed in these types of circumstances where people are actively promoting a terrorist organisation or inciting hatred and promoting violence,” she said. “And we’ve seen some of that happening, we’ve seen some arrests taking place. The home secretary has been working with police because we want to see a stricter clampdown, shall we say. Of course we keep everything under review.”

Asked whether the definition was being reconsidered, she claimed that the government was confident of its current laws but would surely take action if they did not seem sufficient over the next few weeks.

Massive Pro-Palestine march in London Now #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/0gbpH5feoR

— Aidarouss Ahmed Hirsi (@aidaroussahmed) October 28, 2023

'Scale of human tragedies not seen for long time'

On the same show, Peter Kyle, the shadow science secretary, was asked if he would condemn or believe "Israel" was guilty of war crimes in Gaza. “We have called for international law to be obeyed at all times, bearing in mind that Hamas did not obey international law when it crossed the border, went in and slaughtered 1,400 people and took 200-plus captive,” he said.

“We are not thinking ‘how do we win votes?’ or what votes we will lose at a time when there is war and conflict unfolding before us, and there are human tragedies of a scale we have not seen for a very long time,” he said, referring to the Labour Party.

The UK Home Office is developing plans that could result in the expulsion of foreign students, academics, and workers for either expressing support for the Palestinian resistance faction Hamas or criticizing the ongoing Israeli aggression.

Robert Jenrick, the Immigration Minister, has tasked department officials with assessing visa revocation based on national security concerns and the presence of evidence indicating discrimination or support for the terror group in the aftermath of its activities in "Israel".