GB News presenter Dougie Beattie was met with silence and refusal when he tried to question pro-Palestine demonstrators at the start of a major protest in central London.
The demonstrators, holding signs supporting the Palestine Action Group, ignored repeated attempts to answer questions, despite the arrest squads being in position nearby.
The demonstration comes amid heightened tensions following the recent attack at a synagogue in Manchester where two people died.
Speaking from the protest in Parliament Square, Dougie said: “Not as many young people are here who might get arrested under terrorism laws, so that seems to have sunk in.
The protester refused to speak to the GB News reporter
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GB NEWS
“But there are the usual suspects, people of a certain age, from a certain side of the community, who always seem to come out to these protests.
“They are really putting themselves at risk of being arrested and facing terrorism charges, which is quite bizarre.”
Dougie the approached one protester and asked: “Sir, do you want to speak to us? Why are you here?”
The man ignored the reporter, and Dougie pressed: “You’re here to protest, but you don’t want to tell us what you are protesting.”
The protester then replied: “I think that we are all worried about how the media will treat us.”
Dougie said: “But the media is only asking why you’re here”, causing the man to turn away and ignore him further.
The GB News reporter said: “You can see they’re done, they just want to cause disruption in the middle of London and don’t want to talk about why they’re actually here, which is very, very strange.
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“But as you can see from their signs, they support the Palestine Action Group, which means they are at risk of being arrested. The arrest squads are just sitting to the left-hand side of me at the moment.
“There’s a yellow gate up there, and you can see, just off in the distance behind, that the wagons for arrests are already lined up.
“You’ve got to ask yourself: today, will the Government actually make a lot of arrests?
“They didn’t want this protest to go ahead in the first place, especially after the very sad incident at a synagogue in Manchester earlier this week.”
The demonstration comes amid heightened tensions following the recent attack at a synagogue in Manchester
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GB NEWS
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both died and three others remain in hospital with serious injuries following the Manchester attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.
In a statement published on X on Friday, the Met said: “The horrific terrorist attack that took place in Manchester yesterday will have caused significant fear and concern in communities across the UK, including here in London.
“Yet at a time when we want to be deploying every available officer to ensure the safety of those communities, we are instead having to plan for a gathering of more than 1,000 people in Trafalgar Square on Saturday in support of a terrorist organisation.
“By choosing to encourage mass law-breaking on this scale, Defend Our Juries are drawing resources away from the communities of London at a time when they are needed most. We urge them to do the responsible thing and delay or cancel their plans.”
The Metropolitan Police also wrote to the group overnight, raising concerns about the amount of police resources the protest would divert at a time when “visible reassurance and protective security” is needed in communities across London.