It was midday on Saturday, November 18, on Camden High Street, the shopping street that runs through the London district of Camden to St Pancras station. Pensioners and families passed each other in the rain, their shopping bags full, while the restaurants slowly began to fill up. Suddenly, shouts of "Free Palestine, end genocide, cease-fire now!" rang out, and a dense crowd took to the sidewalk. It reflected the neighborhood: couples with their children in baby carriers, students brandishing Palestinian flags, young girls, representing all skin colors and origins, and elderly people in raincoats with keffiyehs around their necks.

Several hundred people, perhaps 500 or 600, converged on the Crowndale Center, a building where Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party and MP for the Camden constituency, has his offices. The demonstrators responded to the call of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), one of the main organizations orchestrating the pro-Palestinian marches that have been taking place every weekend in the country – with undeniable popularity – since the massacre perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 and Israel's response in Gaza.

The PSC called to protest that Saturday against Labor MPs who, following Starmer's instructions, had refused to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, referring instead to "humanitarian pauses." In addition to the one in Camden, around a hundred rallies were held across the country.

"These are children being killed in Gaza and we can't remain indifferent. We're also protesting against Keir Starmer; he shouldn't have sanctioned the members of his cabinet who defended a cease-fire [eight of whom had to resign]," said Maggie Hindley, a woman in her sixties who was holding a banner on behalf of CADFA, a local pro-Palestinian organization. Next to her, a demonstrator held up a sign reading "Starmer has blood on his hands," while another held a photo of Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy with an insulting label on it. Dozens of police officers were positioned around and within the crowd – they did not have to intervene.

On November 11, up to 300,000 people marched in London in support of Palestinians, according to the Metropolitan Police. The main disturbances were caused by far-right counter-demonstrators who broke the ban on approaching the Cenotaph, the monument to soldiers who died in the two world wars, located opposite Downing Street. Schoolchildren from Glasgow to Bristol also joined the movement as part of the Fridays for Future strikes.

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