A new House of Commons report states that over 900 protests occurred between October 7, 2023 and December 6, 2023.
The cost for police force to manage Israel-Gaza protests in the United Kingdom since October 7 is roughly £25.4 million pounds, or roughly $31,600,000 U.S. dollars, according to a report by the Home Affairs Committee in the House of Commons.
The report, published on February 21, states that over 900 protests occurred between October 7, 2023 and December 6, 2023. Of those protests, a majority were organized solely or jointly by the groups known as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Muslim Association of Britain.
“There have been just over 900 protests to police since the beginning of October and 100 smaller events across the country, ranging from a few hundred people to several thousand,” Chief Constable Chris Haward of the National Police Chiefs’ Council said on December 12.
The Metropolitan Police stated on January 4 that over 400 individuals had been arrested “in relation to offences linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict including hate crimes and public order offences.”
A large-scale “National March for Palestine” occurred in London on November 11, known as Armistice Day in the U.K. and Veterans Day in the U.S. According to the report,126 arrests were made, and roughly 100 of those were of “of far right extremist counter-protesters” who caused “severe disruption.”
“While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march did not see the sort of physical violence carried out by the right wing, we know that for London’s Jewish communities whose fears and concerns we absolutely recognise, the impact of hate crime and in particular anti-Semitic offences is just as significant,” reads a statement by the Metropolitan Police that was released on November 11.
According to the police, “football hooligans” who arrived “already intoxicated, aggressive and clearly looking for confrontation” attacked and threatened officers who were protecting the Cenotaph. The protesters chanted “you’re not English any more” at the officers. Nine officers were injured during the day, two requiring hospital treatment with a fractured elbow and a suspected dislocated hip.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak released a statement on November 11 condemning “Hamas sympathizers” and the English Defense League, a group founded in 2009 in response to the threat of “militant Islam.”
“What we have seen today does not defend the honour of our Armed Forces, but utterly disrespects them,” Sunak wrote. “That is true for the EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protests. The fear and intimidation the Jewish Community have experienced over the weekend is deplorable.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism organized the November 26 “March against Antisemitism” demonstration, which drew between 50,000 and 100,000 attendees, according to various news outlets’ estimates. The Metropolitan Police made two arrests, including the founder of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson.
In late November, the Metropolitan Police began distributing informational pamphlets advising protesters to “keep on the right side of the law” at demonstrations.
To “avoid ending up in our cells,” the Metropolitan Police pamphlet states that protesters may not use words or images that “are racist or incite hatred against any faith,” “support Hamas or any other banned organization,” or “celebrate or promote acts of terrorism” such as killing or kidnapping of innocent people.
The protests “led to the greatest period of sustained pressure on the Met [police] since the Olympics in 2012,” according to the report.
“This is the largest co-ordination event we have had in policing since the Olympics and probably pre the Olympics, too,” Haward said. Over 26,000 officer shifts were needed from October 7, 2023 to December 17, 2023 to police demonstrations.
“We currently estimate the total Op Brocks cost to the Met to be £18.9 million from 7 October to 17 December 23. This is made up of £9.5 million of opportunity costs and £9.4 million in additional cost,” said the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Matt Twist. (“Operation Brocks” is the name of the Metropolitan Police’s response to managing the impacts of the Israel-Gaza conflict in London.)
Excluding the costs incurred by the Metropolitan Police in London, the real costs of the police force managing protests throughout the UK amount to £6.5 million in the nine-week period following October 7, bringing the total cost up to £25.4 million.
As of December 12, there were more than 800 open cases in the Metropolitan Police of reported hate crimes, which will require estimated 6,000 hours of officers’ time for investigating.
“We have seen a rise in hate crime, most prevalent in metropolitan areas because that is where our largest Jewish communities are, but on a national level, the figure for antisemitic crime is up by 680 percent year on year and for Islamophobic crime up by 140 percent year on year,” Haward said. “There does seem to be a pattern that coincides with national protests, when we see spikes on the weekends when those events are happening or when events of significance happen in Gaza.”