Michael Gove says some pro-Palestine events are organised by extremist organisations

March For Palestine, in London on October 21, 2023 (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Gove also explained that the “from the river to the sea” chant was an explicit call for the erasure of the Jewish state and risked exacerbating hate.

He said there may be time for a “broader conversation about the way in which some of what's said on these marches springs from an extremist ideology, rather than simply being an expression of passionate opposition to conflict.

''’From the river to the sea' is not a call for peace. When you're saying 'from the river to the sea', you're explicitly saying: 'I want to see the end of Israel as a Jewish state, the Jewish homeland erased.'”
He said a “key Islamist demand is the erasure of what they see as the ‘Zionist entity’ or the ‘crusader Zionist state.’

“Therefore, let’s be clear that there is a difference between a cry for peace and the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate.”

Gove added that one thing the government was looking at was “the way in which foreign state and non-state actors seek to encourage extremism here.

“Again, this is inevitably sensitive work about which I can say only a very limited amount because it's not only Iran that attempts to use some of these forces to destabilise British democracy.”

The comments followed another large demonstration on Saturday during which five demonstrators and one counter-protestor were arrested.