A London town hall meeting descended into chaos with furious protesters chanting ‘shame on you’ after councillors refused to answer their questions about the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Lewisham’s full council meeting on Wednesday evening (January 17) had to be paused for 10 minutes while around 50 demonstrators were escorted out of the town hall by security because they refused to stop shouting.
They were angry that Deputy Mayor Brenda Dacres and cabinet member for communities Juliet Campbell dodged questions about whether the Labour-run council would call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
On three occasions, Cllr Dacres and Cllr Campbell refused to respond to questions related to the issue completely. They argued the protestors’ follow-up questions weren’t related to the original written questions submitted to the council.
Demonstrators shouted ‘shame’ from the public gallery when Cllr Dacres and Cllr Campbell declined to answer the questions. But the protestors’ anger reached boiling point after they were told they couldn’t ask their 10th question of the evening because the person who submitted it wasn’t present.
The group booed as council speaker Tauseef Anwar pleaded with protesters to leave. Cllr Anwar stood up and banged a gavel in a desperate attempt to restore order. But demonstrators ignored him and chanted ‘Lewisham Council shame on you,’ ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Ceasefire now.’
“I am not suspending the meeting today,” Cllr Anwar replied. But minutes later councillors voted to adjourn the session to allow protesters to be escorted out of the building. The full council meeting restarted around 10 minutes later without the protesters and continued without incident.
Speaking on Thursday, January 18, Kojo Arbah from Lewisham for Palestine, which organised the rally, said those present decided to interrupt proceedings because they felt councillors were ducking their questions.
He said: “There was general dissatisfaction with the answers. They were not answering the question substantively. The answers were the same as [to] the written question, which is to say they regret the loss of life.”
Explaining what happened after the meeting was suspended, he said: “We were escorted out quite peacefully and the councillors left the chamber. It was all quite orderly and we went home.”
Mr Arbah added that attendees wanted the council to pass a motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and to stop investing in pension funds linked to the Israeli government. Several Labour councils have already backed motions calling for this, including Bradford, Liverpool and Preston.
Cllr Dacres, who has been short-listed to be Labour’s candidate for Lewisham mayor, said she was ‘horrified’ by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life, and hoped there would be a ceasefire.
Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday, January 17, she said: “We’ve got to distinguish what we do as a council and what the government’s role is to do. As a council we will be focusing on our residents here in Lewisham.
“We will continue to work with our faith groups, community groups to make sure those who are affected by what is happening get the support they need in Lewisham.”
