Five people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred at a protest outside the office of the Board of Deputies of British Jews in north London, the Metropolitan Police said.
The force said they were detained when a “spontaneous protest” was staged outside the Camden headquarters of the UK’s largest Jewish community group.
Elsewhere, two people were arrested at a larger student pro-Palestinian protest in central London – one for breach of conditions and a second for common assault.
The arrests came as a number of student pro-Palestinian protests were taking place in London three years on from the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken as hostages by the militant group.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Footage from the demonstration outside the Board of Deputies’ Camden office showed a few dozen protesters, several of whom were wearing face coverings.
In a statement following the arrests, the Board of Deputies said the group “would not be threatened or intimidated” and thanked police for their “swift” response.
Slogans “calling for intifada” were chanted during the protest, according to the Met. The five arrested remain in custody.
The term intifada came into popular use during the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1987.
Jewish groups have described the term as a call for violence against Jewish people. Pro-Palestinian groups have said it is a call for peaceful resistance to Israel’s occupation.
The Board of Deputies is set to hold a vigil in Richmond Terrace, near Whitehall in central London, later on Wednesday.
Separately, two people were arrested at a student pro-Palestinian march, which went from Lincoln’s Inn Fields to Russell Square and was attended by around 100 people.
The Met said it ended ahead of a police-enforced dispersal time, which was imposed when organisers rejected calls to move it from 7 October.
Counter-demonstrators carrying Israeli flags also gathered in Russell Square. There were some minor scuffles between the two groups.
Pro-Palestinian protesters were heard chanting “Zionists not welcome here” and “free Palestine from the river to the sea”.
Some use the chant as a call for Palestinian control of all land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel.
Critics say the slogan is a call for the destruction of the state of Israel.
That interpretation is disputed by pro-Palestinian activists, who say that most people chanting it are calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza, not the destruction of Israel itself.