April 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Kingdom authorities have reported this Wednesday that three young people arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest in front of the home of the leader of the British Labor Party, Keir Starmer, have been charged with violating public order by demonstrating at the entrance of the residence.
All of them, aged between 21 and 24, were arrested on Tuesday in Kentish Town, northwest of London, the British capital, according to information from the British television network BBC.
During the demonstration, they placed children's shoes in the garden in front of the main door of the house, where they also hung a banner. The country's Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has condemned the incident and stated that “no MP should be harassed in his own home.” “We cannot tolerate this and we will not tolerate it,” he said.
The three defendants have been identified as Leonorah Ward, from Leeds, Zosia Lewis, 23, from Newcastle upon Tyne and Daniel Formentin, from Burley, Leeds. The Metropolitan Police of London has indicated in a statement that “the law allows the harassment of a person in their home to end if the authorities suspect that the owner or tenant is being subjected to any danger or stress.”
From the organization of which the activists are a part, Youth Demand, they have asserted that “under normal circumstances, protesting next to someone's home would mean crossing a line”, but has defended that the current situation in the Gaza Strip “is not a normal situation” and “it cannot be done as if nothing had happened”. “We are taking steps to ask Starmer to take action and stop the murder,” she clarified.
Concern for the safety of British MPs has been growing as Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip progresses, where more than 33,400 people have already died. Earlier this year, dozens of people gathered outside the home of Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood to call for a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
