Good morning. There were 145 arrests after the pro-Palestinian march and far right counter-protest in London on Saturday, and all but a handful were at the latter. That isn’t the whole story of a complicated day, which also saw a number of incidents of antisemitism among a police-estimated 300,000 people on the march. But it’s a sensible starting point for any analysis of where most of the responsibility for the disorder on Armistice Day belongs.
Despite that, the theme that ran through the government’s response and some media coverage was one of blame on both sides: a portrait of a day of chaos and confrontation with two equally culpable protagonist groups. The evidence suggests that isn’t true. Today’s newsletter, with the Observer’s reporter on the ground, Mark Townsend, takes you through it. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Israel-Hamas war | Two major hospitals in northern Gaza have closed to new patients amid Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities, as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators. Read Jason Burke’s analysis of why Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, is a target.
Housing | Thousands of babies and toddlers are being admitted to hospital in England each year with lung conditions that are likely linked to damp and mould-ridden homes, a senior doctor has warned.
Society | Millennials in the UK are still bearing the “economic scars” of the 2008 financial crisis and are struggling to catch up with the living standards of older groups while their US counterparts have closed the gap, new research shows. The Resolution Foundation said that UK millennials born in the late 1980s earned 8% less than their counterparts from generation X.
Health | A woman who suffered traumatic complications from a vaginal mesh implant has been awarded a record settlement of at least £1m from the NHS. Yvette Greenway-Mansfield called the settlement a “huge relief” but noted that many other women in similar circumstances have received little or no compensation.
Television | Former Ukip and Brexit party leader Nigel Farage has been seen at Brisbane airport in Australia, adding to speculation that he will be joining the lineup in this year’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!. Farage did not confirm that he was entering the jungle, but did tell a reporter that he “might be going in”.
In depth: Sorting fact from fiction on Armistice Day
On Wednesday last week, the Daily Mail ran a front page with the headline: “PRAY THEY DON’T END UP WITH A RIOT AT THE CENOTAPH”. That line distilled warnings of trouble that had become central to the discussion of Saturday’s pro-Palestine protest since home secretary Suella Braverman first branded those attending “hate marchers”.
That looked prescient yesterday, but not in the way that readers might have assumed. Mark Townsend has covered four of the pro-Palestinian marches since 7 October – a role which, this weekend, also meant covering the far-right counter-protest. The atmosphere among those on the main march on Saturday was upbeat and tolerant, he said. “There were lots of families, it felt like the dominant demographic was women in their twenties.” That was not the totality of the event, but nobody has pointed to any evidence of widespread antisemitic or pro-Hamas feeling.
There was significant disorder - from a different source. That appears unambiguous from on-the-ground reporting, footage of events, and police accounts from the weekend.
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The claims: ‘extremists from ALL sides’
Braverman, who has cut an isolated figure in the cabinet after accusing the police of being biased in favour of the marchers, broke her silence on the disorder on Sunday afternoon in a series of tweets. She made a fleeting reference to “protesters and counter-protesters”, but had nothing specific to add on the latter, instead focusing on “the sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march”.
Rishi Sunak’s version of what happened was reported in the Sunday Telegraph’s front page headline: “Far-right thugs and Hamas sympathisers disrespect our heroes”. He condemned “the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine”. He noted that the majority had “chosen to express their views peacefully”, but his statement appeared to present groups on both sides as equally culpable.
The Mail on Sunday, meanwhile, described “terrifying scenes as extremists from ALL sides tarnish Armistice Day”. But it led on an incident involving cabinet minister Michael Gove, who it said was “jostled and abused” by a “pro-Palestine hate mob”. The first mention of the far right came in the tenth paragraph on an inside page. A full page editorial, meanwhile, described “outrages by the apostles of violence”. The counter-protest first appeared 750 words in, in a sentence suggesting that the protest organisers “ought to take some part of the responsibility”.
Something similar was visible in several of this morning’s papers. An editorial in the Sun said that the pro-Palestine march gave the far right “the excuse to act” and largely focused on how march organisers “ducked their responsibilities”. The Daily Mail suggested that what took place on the march was “more overtly far-Right than a few dozen football hooligans scuffling with police”.
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The march: ‘There was no sense of a violent dynamic’
There is no doubt that there were incidents of antisemitism and disorder on the march and among breakaway groups. On Sunday, the Met released photos of six people it said it was seeking to identify in relation to a hate crime, including one woman holding a banner depicting a swastika intertwined with the star of Israel. There was footage of another woman at Victoria station shouting “death to all the Jews”, and another of a man on the march telling an interviewer that “Hitler knew how to deal with these people”.
The police also temporarily detained about 150 people who broke away from the main march and set off fireworks. (No one was arrested.) And the Campaign Against Antisemitism said families leaving a synagogue in St John’s Wood were escorted away by police after men waving Palestinian flags shouted at them from cars outside.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), said he had counted ten incidents pictured on social media, and I’ve reached the same tally of photos from the main march. Others may emerge in the coming days (and I may have missed some), but among 300,000 people, according to police estimates, or 800,000 according to organisers, it is hard to see those incidents as characteristic. (This is not to discount their impact on those Jewish people who have seen the weekly emergence of such cases as intimidating proof of antisemitism.)
“The number of arrests was tiny against the size of the march,” Mark said. “There was no sense, in what I saw, of a violent dynamic at all. Even when the far right were getting very close, there was a bit of chests-out defensive stuff among some of the men, but no sense of seeking to take them on.”
In part, he attributes the behaviour of the vast majority to “a sense that everyone was on best behaviour, knowing that the spotlight was on. There were a lot of people saying, we have to send a message, and that message is peace.”
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The counter-protest: ‘They were looking for a fight’
There was no sense, in contrast, of a moderate mainstream to the counter-protest, which was almost exclusively made up of white men who appeared to have come to London in search of trouble. Telegram groups popular with the English Defence League and the Democratic Football Lads Alliance had organised their attendance, Mark said. “You could tell when they arrived that they were tanked up - that they were treating it as they would an away match at a formidable football ground. They were looking for a fight immediately. There was more hostility than I’ve seen on EDL marches in the past.”
Counter-protesters who spoke to Mark claimed Braverman was “the only one listening to us”. Whatever Braverman meant, a line in her Times article this week about “the tough way [football fans] are policed” was understood as a sign of her tacit support. “They have plenty of previous with the police from being herded at football matches,” Mark said.
The police said the vast majority of arrests were of the counter-protesters, despite their relatively small numbers - estimated at about 1,000. Videos abound of large groups seeking confrontation with the police, chanting “you’re not English any more” at officers in Chinatown or throwing glass bottles. One video shows a group of men at Waterloo station calling someone a “terrorist” and saying “we were born in this country”. Another video showed a group chanting “who the fuck is Allah” at the protesters, many of whom were Muslims. Assistant Met Commissioner Matt Twist said that they had committed “extreme violence” and were found in possession of weapons including a knife, a baton and a knuckleduster, as well as Class A drugs. Nine officers were injured in clashes with counter-protesters, and at least two are in hospital.
Perhaps the most striking incident, though, was when the far right charged past police who sought to hold them back from the Cenotaph – certainly the closest thing to the feared riot. In this video, a man shouts “this is fucking our country” in celebration. Whereas the pro-Palestine march had been excluded from the area as a precaution, the far right was not; by overwhelming the police, they supposedly sought to defend the site from an enemy that simply wasn’t there.
All in all, Mark said, “the Met did a brilliant job at policing the march and maintaining order”. But while both sides needed to be policed, the claims that both bear equal responsibility for what unfolded appear fatuous. “To draw that equivalence is beyond sleight of hand - it’s disingenuous,” Mark added. “Anyone airbrushing the difference has got it very wrong - or they’re politically motivated.”
What else we’ve been reading
Remember Squid Game? More than two years after its release, a reality TV version is out, where real people are put through intense, high stakes games in the hope of winning $4.56m. Rhik Samadder put on a green tracksuit and took part to see what all the fuss is about. Nimo
More than a decade ago, existing businesses were kicked out to turn a set of railway arches in east London into a £100m luxury fashion hub. Today Hackney Walk is a ghost town. Simon Usborne’s superb piece for Saturday magazine about what went wrong stands as a classic parable of the failures of gentrification. Archie
Barbara Ellen shares her considered thoughts on the film How to Have Sex and its themes around consent, virginity and peer pressure: “The sexual minefield is still as full of faulty wiring (and predators and people-pleasers) as it ever was,” Ellen writes. Nimo
Emine Sinmaz accompanied Noam Sagi, whose mother was abducted during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, on a trip to the Nir Oz kibbutz where she lived. His reflections as he surveys the aftermath form a devastating portrait of the grief of those whose loved ones have been killed or kidnapped: “I see a skeleton of what used to be life,” he says. Archie
Johana Bhuiyan reveals how cameras made by Hikvision, a Chinese firm linked to repression of Uyghurs, is being used by the Israeli government to surveil the West Bank. The chilling report highlights the prevalence of surveillance cameras in the occupied Palestinians territories and the impact on the daily lives of Palestinian people. Nimo
Sport
Football | The Premier League signed off for the latest international break with an eight-goal epic as rejuvenated Chelsea held champions Manchester City in a thrilling 4-4 draw. Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, pictured above, struck a nerveless stoppage-time penalty against his former club in an all-time Premier League classic. Jonathan Liew called it “a game you wanted to inhale even as it sucked all the air out of your lungs”.
Cricket | The Cricket World Cup enters its sixth and final week after hosts India thrashed Netherlands ahead of their semi-final against New Zealand. Defending champions England’s disastrous tournament is finally, thankfully over, with managing director Rob Key shouldering the blame for focusing on Test cricket over the 50-over game.
Golf | Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy has won his fifth European order of merit title a week early after Adrian Meronk fell short of the third-place finish he required at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa to keep the race alive going to the final event in Dubai next weekend. McIlroy adds the 2023 title to wins in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2022.
The front pages
“Mould and squalid housing ‘making NHS crisis worse’” is our Guardian page one lead to start the week. The i has “Hunt considers pre-Christmas tax cuts to lift Tory gloom” while the Financial Times says “Washington warns Israel not to attack Gaza hospitals”. The Metro’s lead is “Tears for the fallen” as it zooms in on the Princess of Wales during the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in London. The Sun shows Kate as well and says “Never again”, claiming there will be “new laws to protect Remembrance”. “Have you no shame?” – the Daily Mirror is incredulous that Suella Braverman was at the Cenotaph “24 hours after Armistice Day violence her words helped to incite”. Kate’s there again on the Daily Mail while the splash is “Suella comes out fighting”. “Braverman: The hate marches must end” – that’s the Daily Telegraph, while the Times has “Arrest antisemitic yobs now, Sunak will tell Met”. “Will Suella survive PM’s reshuffle?” – the Daily Express picks up on a rumoured possible way for Sunak to move Braverman along under the banner of a broader cabinet shakeup.
Today in Focus
Rebuilding Paradise: five years on from California’s deadliest fire
Five years after a wildfire killed 85 people in the Californian town of Paradise, the area has been rebuilt from the ashes. Dani Anguiano and Alastair Gee report
Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett
Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
When Nick Murphy and his funk band Feelabeelia were recording a single for their album in the summer of 1984, they received a call almost all of us would believe was a prank: Stevie Wonder’s manager calling to ask if the singer would be able to crash the band’s session as he was in the UK and had to record urgently.
Murphy, a Stevie superfan, was overjoyed and said: “Are you kidding? It’s Stevie Wonder. He can come for a week if he wants.”
Stevie arrived later that evening and the band were starstruck. Their streak of luck wasn’t over – he had asked the group what songs they were working on, which then led Stevie to agree to feature. “The song was pretty shit before he blessed it”. Murphy says in this week’s Guardian Experience column, reasonably calling the encounter “one of the most incredible days of my life”.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
