Hard Left Palestine protest leader defends ‘from the river to the sea’ chanting saying it isn’t anti-Semitic and claims Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman ‘mobilised the Far Right’ to confront Armistice Day Gaza march in fiery clash with MPs

The Hard Left leader of pro-Palestinian marches in Britain defended chants by protesters that have been branded ‘anti-Semitic’ in an astonishing appearance in front of MPs.

Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, defended the slogan ‘from the river the sea, Palestine shall be free’, which critics claim is a call for the destruction of Israel.

But in a fiery appearance at the Home Affairs Committee he suggested he himself chanted it, and said it was about how Palestinian have been ‘deprived’ of their rights.

He also launched an attack on Rishi Sunak and former home secretary Suella Braverman over their criticism of a march in London on Armistice day, accusing them of ‘mobilising’ the Far Right to confront those marching for a ceasefire in Gaza.

He had to be halted by committee chair Dame Diana Johnson when he defended the chanting. Mr Jamal said he was always asked if he ‘tolerated’ the chant on marches, adding: ‘We don’t tolerate it, we chant it. I speak as a Palestinian, this is a chant used by the vast majority of Palestinians.

Mr Jamal said he was always asked if he ‘tolerated’ the chant on marches, adding: ‘We don’t tolerate it, we chant it.’

Dame Diana interrupted him abruptly as he continued, saying: ‘ Mr Jamal I am chairing this meeting … there are people who find that chant very offensive and believe that it is about the annihilation of the state of Israel.’

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on November 11 to demand a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

‘It describes how their rights are deprived across all of historic Palestine, including if they are citizens of the state of Israel or living under military occupation. It in no shape or form seeks the abrogation of anybody else’s rights.

‘To suggest that it does is actually a way of saying ”let’s not listen to Palestinians when they say what they mean, when they choose the words they say…”’

Dame Diana interrupted him abruptly as he continued, saying: ‘Mr Jamal I am chairing this meeting … we understand your views on that, but equally there are people who find that chant very offensive and believe that it is about the annihilation of the state of Israel.’

Earlier he has criticised Mrs Braverman and the Pm over their comments attacking the November 10 march. Mrs Braverman, who was sacked last month, branded it a ‘hate march’.

‘We were marching on the Saturday but we did not want to disrupt preparations (for Remembrance Sunday),’ Mr Jamal told MPs.

‘The police knew that, it is inconceivable that the home secretary and the Prime Minister do not talk to the police. So when they made their statements they knew full well what they were saying was not true and the protests had no intention (of approaching the Cenotaph).

‘What they then did was light a touchpaper that mobilised the far right … it is up to them to say whether they did that intentionally or not.’

The PSC organised marches through London on the weekends after Hamas’s October 7 terror attack.

In 2016, Ben Jamal became the first Palestinian appointed as a director. The son of an Anglican priest says his father’s family of Christian Arabs were driven out of Jerusalem in 1948.

Mr Jamal’s great-uncle, Shibli Jamal, was the secretary to a Palestinian delegation which came to Britain in 1921 to negotiate with Winston Churchill – then secretary of state for the colonies – to overturn the Balfour declaration, a British pledge to establish ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine.

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