London: Stop the Hate UK countering Al Quds 2025

March 23, 2025

To Oxford Street (used to be London’s premier shopping street, well for ordinary people, but needs an upgrade) for the gathering of Jews, Iranians, and supporters of Israel who were meeting at Oxford Circus to counter this years Al Quds march which was meeting at Marble Arch and sauntering to their rally in Portland Place by BBC HQ.

The counter rally was organised under the aegis of Stop the Hate with the purpose of Free London from Extremism.

They were in good voice, and when not singing had an excellent play list. Queen, We are the Champions, George Michael, Freedom, Bob Marley and the Wailers Iron Lion Zion, and Israeli rock.

There were some speakers. Wilson Choudary of the British Asian Christian Association spoke about links with Israel and a desire for peace.

A young Muslim Arab man spoke on the etymology of the name of Jerusalem, ‘the eternal capital of Israel, by the direction of the blessed King David’.

I couldn’t hear the other speaker properly due to my distance at that point but his passion was noticable.

This woman didn’t want to raise her placard to cover her face when I asked her if she was happy to be in the internet; “I’m not ashamed. I’m proud of what I am”. And why not.

I went to take look at the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) rally point down the side of the BBC. The policeman said I could go further if I wished, but there was nothing to see at that point. Their screen is visible, bottom left. The BBC building is centre and All Souls church is just visible right.

Down Oxford Street groups were making their way directly to the rally point rather than wait for the march.

“Why you taking photographs???”
“Don’t worry luv, you haven’t broken my camera lens”
But she didn’t get the joke.

A small group with an Israel flag were being harrassed but the police escorted them in.

Jewish run events always start on time and finish within the police timetable. However the Al Quds march is always late.

Looking for it down the length of Oxford Street felt like that scene in the film the Great Wall where the troops are ready on the wall looking down the mountain pass waiting for the demons to hove into view. Eventually they hoved.

Right at the front were 2-3 dozen surly looking young men, some with faces covered, who had no banners or flags.

I didn’t notice the group of elderly mullahs and their side-kicks the men of Neturei Karta this year, although their banner was there. Maybe I missed them, or they went straight to the rally after a few yards of marching.

Using the panorama feature on my camera can produce some interesting effects. Despite my mention of demons earlier that man does not have 8 feet and the old crone does not have heads to match.

There were no Hezbullah flags this year that I saw, but quite a few Lebanese and Iranian flags

All donations gratefully accepted, American Express welcomed . . .

Look! We got a really big flag! Big! Really Big.

This is the best one I got of this placard but it’s still blured. I couldn’t get properly zoomed in in the crush. It says

From the River to the Sea
Single Democratic State
PALESTINE
The only
JUST SOLUTION.

Not the Final Solution, but certainly wiping the state of Israel out of existence.

The head of the march had reached the counter demonstration so I went to take a look.

If you are a legal observer, filming the police and the counter demonstration why are you so cagey about being photographed yourself, and why cover your face?

A hard core group would not move away from the counter demonstration so the Territorial Support Unit (the shock troops of the Metropolitan police) came out and stood between them and the counter. The bulk of the march with the older women and children filed to the left towards Portland Place.

When I was a kid the last ‘float’ in the Bethnal Green carnival was always a Corporation dust cart to clear any litter. This is the Al Quds equivalent,

And if that isn’t a commissar of the the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp gathering intelligence on who attended the counter rally I would be VERY surprised.

It took some time to get the hard core away from Oxford Circus and down to Portland Place.

The TSG can be distinguished because they wear blue not black, and their hats look a bit odd because of the reinforcing. They were not in riot gear but that would certainly have been available in the vans waiting down the side streets.

I took some video. I couldn’t get it to upload directly into this post, but it did upload to X. So here is it via that platform.

This afternoon at Oxford Circus; the Stop the Hate rally countering the Al Quds march pic.twitter.com/a9DZTisJF3

— NER The Iconoclast (@NERIconoclast) March 23, 2025

I don’t know what it is about elderly English men and women that they continue to support the Palestine cause slavishly, despite the undoubted evidence of the atrocities of the 7th October. I won’t say this chap should have been tending his begonias because he might think the same of me. But he and his mates are old enough to know better. They don’t have the excuse of youth.

There were a couple of scuffles as the hard core were finally ‘nudged’ down towards Portland Place. The officer standing his ground here was wearing the blue jerkin of a ‘community’ officer, an attempt to reinvent the old school beat bobby who knew his patch and all who lived on it.