Palestine Coalition files formal complaint against London police commissioner Mark Rowley

The Palestine Coalition on Wednesday filed a complaint against the Metropolitan Police Commissioner over two media interviews, in which he accused the groups of antisemitism.

The complaint, sent to the London Mayor's Office, was made regarding Mark Rowley's comments in two recent interviews, where he made "false and defamatory accusations that the Coalition sought to route marches past synagogues".

"It is irresponsible and dangerous for Rowley to use his position to spread misinformation about us, and he must retract immediately," Ryvka Barnard, Deputy Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, tells The New Arab.

Members of the Palestine Commission include: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum of Britain, Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Muslim Association of Britain and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

In an interview with The Times on 1 May, Rowley said the coalition intentionally wanted to march by a synagogue during one of their peaceful marches, which the Commissioner claimed "feels like antisemitism".

At the same time, in an interview with ITV, he said, "They set out with an intent to march near synagogues, etc., and every single time that we put conditions on to prevent that."

"Our marches for Palestine have always had clear objectives: to show solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice, and to protest against the British government's shameful complicity in Israel's genocide and apartheid," Barnard adds.

"Anyone who suggests otherwise is either misguided or intentionally misrepresenting us and the millions of people who come on our marches."

In the complaint, the coalition maintains that the aim of the protests, since October 2023, "is to protest against Israel's violations of international law against the Palestinian people and the British government's complicity in those violations".

The coalition says the Commissioner's comments were "intentional, not inadvertent, and made to undermine and stigmatise the Palestine marches".

They also maintain their opposition "to all forms of racism, including antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia, and other forms of discrimination".

The complaint adds that hundreds and thousands of people, including Jewish supporters, have been protesting, speaking and marching with the Jewish Bloc.

The Palestine Coalition is calling on the Commissioner to retract the comments and issue a full apology.

Following the interviews, the group revealed that they not only condemned the accusations, but also wrote to Rowley on Monday, calling for the Commissioner to retract the "false and inflammatory statements".

"It is completely unacceptable for a senior public official to make these false claims and accusations, which can only raise the level of tension in the current situation," the coalition wrote to Rowley.

The complaint has been filed ahead of the coalition's 16 May march to commemorate the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The rally will be taking place after reaching an agreement with the police over the protest route, where protesters will march around where the Israeli embassy is located, to Pall Mall near the UK government and parliament district in central London.