More than 660 British Jews, including prominent legal, cultural, and academic figures, have called on the Metropolitan Police to reverse a ban on a planned pro-Palestine protest outside the BBC headquarters in London later this week, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) group criticised the ban as bowing to “partisan campaigning aimed at preventing peaceful and lawful assembly”.

The group said the police faced “strong pressure from pro-Israel organisations” who claimed that Palestine solidarity protests pose a threat to synagogue congregations.

“This evidence-free claim is robustly contradicted by the large Jewish Bloc visible on every major demonstration since the genocide began in October 2023,” the JVL statement noted.

“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.”