26 January 2025

As the World Bowls Tour comes to an end, Norfolk PSC, Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card, and Scottish Sport for Palestine noted that Israeli competitor Daniel Alonim was knocked out in round 1. They expressed their immeasurable disappointment that Daniel Alonim did not make the morally honourable choice and withdraw of his own volition.

Multiple news agencies, including local EDP reporter Bruno Brown, asked the group if they thought it was fair to call for withdrawal of players under the Gleneagles agreement. Citing that individuals may not necessarily agree with their countries’ policies of apartheid and in this case additional, well documented, actions of suspected genocide.

Norfolk PSC and partners’ response was clear: they invited Daniel Alonim to demonstrate where his commitment lay in relation to Israel’s policies.

“If an individual (or team) does not support the policy of apartheid, they have the power to boycott competitions,” a spokesperson said.

Adding that “this would send a clear message to sporting organisers and people around the world.”

The international court of Justice, Amnesty International, and many other humanitarian agencies have decreed Israel to be an apartheid state.

Daniel Alonim refused to respond or withdraw, communicating unequivocally his complete disregard and indifference for the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Zionist policies.

An estimate of over 45,000 Palestinian deaths were reported by the UN (December 2024), 70% of which were women and children. A peer reviewed study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggested this figure may be 41% higher.

The “Israeli killing machine” killed 14,000 children, left 20,000 missing under the rubble or in mass graves, and injured and maimed many others.
(UN, 23 January 2025)

Norfolk PSC and partners reaffirmed their commitment to the monumental Gleneagles agreement, of which the UK is a signatory, declaring that “we will continue to call out any sporting event or sporting body who flouts this agreement by allowing players from Israel, a country accused of apartheid, to compete.”

The Metropolitan Police has promoted a misleading narrative about the events in Whitehall and Trafalgar Square, claiming that a peaceful delegation pushed through police lines in an attempt to justify their repressive actions on Saturday 18 January. This could not be further from the truth.

On Saturday 18 January, we organised a rally on Whitehall to call for a permanent end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Despite our long-standing record of peaceful demonstrations, the police, under political pressure from pro-Israel groups, banned our planned march to the BBC. In response, we announced plans for a rally and a peaceful protest against this anti-democratic ban.

Ahead of the rally, we publicly called on the police to rescind the restrictions they had imposed and allow our march to go ahead. We had also made clear that if they refused to do so we would hold a rally and protest against the ban as part of that rally. The police were fully aware of these statements and our intentions.

On the day, we were confronted with extremely heavy-handed and aggressive policing. With less than 24 hours’ notice, the police had imposed a series of complex restrictions preventing people from assembling at various points on Whitehall at various times of the day – notably an area at the centre of Whitehall from which rally participants were excluded for part of the day to allow space for a children’s marching band to proceed up and down. As a result, a number of people were arrested without warning, on flimsy pretexts including simply for inadvertently standing in this central area at the wrong time. We understand that a total of 77 people were arrested on the day, 66 of them for alleged violations of these orders.

At the end of the rally, it was announced from the stage that, as an act of protest against the police ban, a delegation of organisers and rally speakers – including an 87-year-old Jewish Holocaust survivor, politicians including MPs, and prominent cultural figures – would walk silently and peacefully towards the BBC. It was clearly stated that the delegation expected to be stopped by the police and that no attempt would be made to push through police lines – the delegation would simply leave the flowers they were carrying at the feet of the police and disperse in an orderly and dignified manner. They anticipated being stopped at the line of police that had been constructed at the top of Whitehall.

When the delegation reached this police line, they were not stopped as expected but were instead invited to proceed into Trafalgar Square by the police who said, ‘please filter through.’ When the delegation reached the other end of the square, they encountered a line of police which prevented them from going any further. They formally requested that the delegation – a maximum of 25 people – be allowed to proceed. The police officer in charge said he would need to ‘pass this up the line for a decision.’ While the delegation was awaiting that response, the police violently and for no apparent reason arrested the chief steward of the rally, Chris Nineham. At this point, the delegation laid their flowers as they had said they would do and dispersed, and Ben Jamal and Ismail Patel used a megaphone to call on the crowd that had gathered around them to do the same, which people then did. At no stage was there any organised breach of the conditions imposed by the police. There is a large amount of video evidence confirming all of these events.

This is a direct assault on freedom of assembly and democracy. The police’s actions, including their false statements after the event, are deeply troubling. We demand the immediate release of all those arrested and remain resolute in our campaign for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Palestinian Forum in Britain

Friends of Al-Aqsa

Stop the War Coalition

Muslim Association of Britain

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament