About 30 protesters brought a Greenwich Council meeting to a halt last night after criticising the council for not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Police led the demonstrators out after they started yelling from the public gallery. The council chamber was cleared by security guards and the meeting was suspended.
Some of the protesters tried to hold up banners but these were taken away by security guards, while others unfurled a banner reading: “Greenwich Palestine Action: stop the genocide, end the occupation.” Before the meeting demonstrators, some with Socialist Workers Party placards, had gathered outside Woolwich Town Hall.
The incident came two weeks after Lewisham Council ejected the public and held a meeting behind closed doors following a similar protest.
In Greenwich, the meeting resumed after councillors and members of the public watched police usher the protesters out of the building. It was the most serious disruption to a council meeting since a far-right protest nearly six years ago.
The protest began after one of the demonstrators, Colin Fancy, rose to ask a follow-up to a written question he had submitted asking whether Greenwich would enter a town-twinning arrangement with Bethlehem. A number of public questions more directly addressing the situation in Gaza had been rejected by the council before the meeting.
One of the vetoed questions asked if the council would consider lighting the town hall in the colours of the Palestinian flag in the wake of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. The council lit the building in white and blue following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
“Up to 20,000 Palestinians killed, including 6,000 children, in two months,” Fancy said. “It does not take two months to condemn the bombing, the killing and to call for ceasefire. The UN have called for a ceasefire, Unicef, Oxfam and Save the Children have called for a ceasefire, Action Aid have called for a ceasefire, the first minister of Scotland has called for a ceasefire,” he continued, before being drowned out by fellow protesters.
Security guards moved and one motioned for Dominic Mbang, the ceremonial mayor, to halt the meeting as protesters shouted “ceasefire now!”.
Most councillors ignored the protest, although one, Labour’s Sammy Backon, shouted “shame on you!” at the demonstrators.
The protesters also shouted “shame on you!” as they left the town hall, with some also shouting “from the river, to the sea” a slogan which many consider antisemitic. Police said there were no arrests and the group left without incident.
Three of Greenwich’s 52 Labour councillors signed a letter to Sir Keir Starmer last month calling for him to back calls for a ceasefire. The Greenwich Wire understands that others are also unhappy with Labour’s stance on the conflict. Starmer has said that Israel has the right to defend itself, but senior figures to have called for a ceasefire include the London mayor Sadiq Khan and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
Nationally, about 50 councillors have resigned from the party, including in Haringey, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea and Newham.
At least 16,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, with the Israeli government widely accused of war crimes. About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas incursion into Israel, according to the country’s officials; the United Nations has heard evidence that women were raped and mutilated in the terrorist attack.
Aid agencies have warned that a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening daily with 2.3 million residents in Gaza left homeless amid shortages of shelter, food, water and medical care. A week-long truce collapsed on December 1. The British Red Cross has said there is a “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” in the region.
Updated at 12.40pm to include police statement that there were no arrests.
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