Insults fly as protesters provoke at Israeli Embassy protest - London

In what proved to be a tense, often volatile demonstration yesterday, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered to celebrate the Third Intifada and to condemn the continuing occupation of Palestine. They were vigorously opposed by a much smaller counter-protest group of Israelis and several members of the English Defence League (EDL) and its offshoot, March for England (MfE), which are both Ultra-Nationalist supremacy groups.

Penned up by the police within close range to each other, there were frequent provocative moves made by both sides, taunting and insulting each other. Across the road on the opposite pavement two smaller groups protested too, kept apart by an increasingly large number of police as the temperature rose amongst the more hot-headed protesters, each hoping to antagonise the other into some kind of physical reaction to their taunts. Passers-by were clearly intimidated by the growing tension, and hurried by on the crowded pavement.

The police did an admirable job of containing the situation without resorting to strong-arm tactics, quickly diffusing pockets of potential trouble as they arose. There was one arrest before I left.