Eid Milad-Un-Nabi & End the Siege of Gaza: On Saturday 5th April 2008 was a rather frustrating day for me. I struggled to get to Tooting for the procession honouring the birthday of the Prophet as rail services to the west of London came to a halt. I finally made it but left as the procession neared its end. Thankfully the tube was working to take me into central London to view some exhibitions and photograph a protest at Downing Street calling for an end to the Israeli siege of Gaza.
Milad 2008 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi
Procession and Community Day, Tooting
As usual I’d planned my journey into London carefully, intending to arrive in Tooting well before the start of the procession but a cable fire stopped all services into Waterloo with trains piling up back along the lines. Mine “came to a halt in Feltham, then crept forward slowly to Twickenham where it expired completely. Ten minutes later another service took me the few hundred yards further to St Margarets, where I abandoned rail and jumped onto a passing bus to Richmond.”
Then as I commented “Should you ever want a slow and frustrating ride through some of the more obscure southwest London suburbs I recommend the 493 route, which even includes a ride past Wimbledon Park and the world’s most famous tennis club before taking you past the dog track and on to Tooting.”
A full 50 stops and over an hour later I jumped off the bus and ran the last mile or so towards where the procession was to start on Tooting Bec Road, meeting the procession a few hundred yards from its start. Back in 2008 I wrote “half a mile” but I’ve just measured it and my run was at least double that. The Tooting Sunni Muslim Association’s procession for Eid Milad-Un-Nabi had started ‘promptly’ only around 20 minutes late so I hadn’t missed too much.
The Juloos to honour the birthday of the Prophet was part of an all-day community event and as well as the Muslims there were other local community representatives taking part including the Deputy Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Mrs. Claire Clay.
The previous year I’d gone on after the procession to the celebrations at Tooting Leisure Centre, including the impressive whirling dervishes – who I photographed again there in 2009. But in 2008 there were exhibitions I wanted to see in London – and a protest at Downing Street, so I left as the procession turned into Garratt Lane and took the tube from Tooting Broadway.
Milad 2008 – Eid Milad-Un-Nabi
End the Siege of Gaza
Downing Street
In September 2007 the Israeli government had imposed a siege which was preventing vital medicines and other supplies from entering Gaza. This was a collective punishment against the population, illegal under international law and had by April 2008 already resulted in a number of deaths.
It was one of a series of protests organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on a rather smaller scale than the hundreds of thousands in some more recent demonstrations, but sharing similar aims. It called on the British government to end the arms trade with Israel, and to press Israel to abide by international law, end its illegal occupation and allow the return of refugees.
During the protest one young man with a Palestinian flag crossed the road and stood in front of the gates of Downing Street holding it. It was the police reaction to this – and their attempts to stop me photographing it that made up most of my report in 2008.
Police pulled him to one side and questioned him, telling him that the SOCPA had made it a crime to protest there. They pulled his flag from his hands and dropped it on the pavement, and when he picked it up an officer swore at him, dragged it out of his hands and dropped it on the pavement again. He was then told he was being stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act 2000, though waving a flag is clearly not terrorism.
At this point an officer stood in front of me to stop me taking photographs. I told him I was press but he insisted I move further ways as I was “interfering with the actions of the police.” Clearly I wasn’t and I made this clear to him before moving back as ordered.
A woman officer came up and held her hand in front of my lens. I told her that this was illegal and a senior officer in the Met had told a colleague that he would consider it “a sacking offence” and she hurriedly moved off across the road and away from the area. Unfortunately I failed to get a good picture of her or to take her number.
I went back across the road to continue photographing the protest. Police officers at the protest on the other side of the road were approached by the event organisers about the man being held but denied any connection with the officers on the other side of Whitehall. The officer did attempt to excuse their actions on possible grounds of security, but I didn’t feel he felt too happy about it. The man was still being held by police when I left the area.
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