The Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Ben Jamal, and Chris Nineham, Vice Chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, have been found guilty of breaching protest conditions.
They were facing charges of failing to comply with a condition that participants at a demonstration on 18th January 2025 remain on Whitehall in a static rally, after they had intended to lead a march as in other weeks. The Police were concerned about the prospective proximity to a synagogue and threats to the Jewish community – a tacit admission by the police that these regular hate marches are unsafe for Jewish people.
Following a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the two activists were today convicted.
Mr Jamal was also convicted of two counts of inciting other protesters to breach police conditions under the Public Order Act. He received an 18 month conditional discharge, while Mr Nineham received a 12 month conditional discharge. Both were ordered to pay £7,500 in prosecution costs.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Finally, the leaders of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War Coalition have been convicted over their abuse of the right to protest, inciting their mob to breach police lines and conditions put in place to protect a synagogue.
“The hate march that these convictions relate to took place after a ceasefire had come into effect, but for these people there are no ceasefires in London, and after years of appeasement by our craven police chiefs, they were clearly unused to being told what to do.
“The convicted criminals Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham have made Londoners’ lives a misery for years with their constant marches. They have changed nothing at all thousands of miles away in the Middle East. Instead they have disfigured our city centres into no-go zones for most ordinary people and especially for British Jews.
“The fight for accountability is not over: it is high time that these opaquely-funded organisations are stopped from stretching the British right to protest into some kind of limitless right to monopolise public spaces week after week. The police and Government must follow through and end these incessant performative marches. We will continue our work to see that they do.”
