THE Metropolitan Police waged a direct assault on freedom of assembly at Saturday’s national demonstration for Palestine — then spun a misleading narrative to justify its repressive actions, organisers warned today.

Officers embarked on a harsh crackdown at the London rally, arresting 77 protesters — the highest number seen in over 20 pro-Gaza demonstrations.

Vice-chair of Stop the War Chris Nineham, chief steward of the rally, was among those violently arrested at the protest already marred by police disruption.

Following pressure from pro-Israel groups, the force backtracked on pre-approved plans for the demonstration to begin at the BBC, claiming it risked disrupting services at a nearby synagogue.

Protest organisers, including Stop the War and Palestine Solidarity Campaign, instead planned a peaceful static rally at Whitehall.

The Met confirmed the location as “acceptable.”

But on the day, the protest was confronted with “extremely heavy-handed and aggressive policing,” a statement by the group said. 

The police imposed Public Order Act conditions in various areas.

Organisers said there was a “series of complex restrictions preventing people from assembling at various points on Whitehall at various times of the day,” given with less than 24 hours’ notice.

“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,” they said.

At the end of the rally, to protest against the ban on the original route, it was announced that a small delegation, including an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, would walk silently in that direction, but that no attempt would be made to push through police lines.

According to organisers, the delegation was not stopped at the police line but invited through by officers into Trafalgar Square.

They then encountered another line at the other end of the square. 

While the delegation waited for a response to their request to be let through, organisers said that police “violently and for no apparent reason arrested the chief steward of the rally, Chris Nineham.”

UNBOWED: Demonstration chief steward Chris Nineham. Credit: Dave Gilchrist

Footage on social media appears to show police violently pushing protesters.

Commander Adam Slonecki, who led the policing operation which had let the delegation pass through police lines, claimed that there had been a “deliberate effort, including by protest organisers, to breach conditions and attempt to march out of Whitehall.”

Campaigners accused the Met of promoting a misleading narrative about the events to justify their actions.

It is understood that MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, part of the delegation, were interviewed under police caution.

Mr McDonnell wrote on X that the police “allowed us to go through.”

On the same platform, Mr Corbyn said the Met’s claims that the group forced its way through the police line was “not an accurate description of events at all.”

The police said 24 people have been bailed and 48 remain in custody.

They confirmed Mr Nineham had been charged with a public order offence along with nine others.

After his eventual release, Stop the War national officer John Rees told supporters outside Walworth police station that Mr Nineham’s bail conditions meant that he is not allowed to attend any protests.

“This is a first-rank all-out assault on the right to free assembly, of the right to free speech,” he said.

“It is unprecedented in modern times in British history. 

“It is unprecedented for the police to arrest a senior officer of a major protest organisation in this country, and to combine that with a sweep of hundreds of actors who have been taken into custody, and some of them already charged with similar offences.

“It is, in short, a state attempt to close down protests on the question of Palestine.”

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi from Jewish Voice for Labour said the arrests represent “a frightening lurch towards political repression in Britain.”

“Statements from the Metropolitan Police, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper portraying what occurred as protecting the right of Jews to worship against a mob that ‘broke through police lines’ are both dishonest and totally untrue,” she said. 

The group highlighted that over 1,000 Jewish people had signed a petition urging the police to reverse its ban on protesting outside the BBC, and that there had been no evidence of anti-semitic behaviour towards the synagogue.

“The ultimate aim of this partisan clamour is clearly the banning of the protests completely. 

“As Jews, we are shocked at this brazen attempt to interfere with hard-won political freedoms by conjuring up an imaginary threat to Jewish freedom of worship.

“It is beyond time for police and politicians to start listening to Jews who support justice for Palestinians and not only to those who back Israel’s far-right government.

Ms Wimborne-Idrissi noted that public order legislation is being used to “prevent and criminalise pro-Palestinian protest.”

“Political dissent is now under threat in the UK.”