A tense demonstration outside a London venue hosting an Israeli real estate event tied to illegal settlements in occupied Palestine devolved into violence on Sunday, as pro-Israel counter-protesters assaulted anti-apartheid activists opposing the controversial gathering. The event, branded the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event”, was held at Edgware United Synagogue in north London, drawing immediate condemnation from human rights organizations and political figures who argue it normalizes the displacement of Palestinian people and the expansion of unlawful Israeli settlements.
Anti-apartheid and pro-Palestine demonstrators assembled outside the synagogue to highlight the event’s core purpose: marketing and selling property built on occupied Palestinian land that the international community universally recognizes as illegally occupied. Public records of participating companies, published by the event’s sponsor earlier in the week, confirmed that at least four participating entities either explicitly advertise real estate in illegal Israeli settlements or are directly involved in settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, a journalist and long-standing activist working to document Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, was on site during the confrontation. He told independent outlet Middle East Eye that the aggression from pro-Israel counter-protesters mirrored exactly the violence he had witnessed first-hand in occupied Palestinian territories. “We are surrounded by a bunch of Zionists who are counter-protesting and attacking people — a bunch of Palestinian activists were attacked by the Zionists and then got arrested,” Khrzhanovskiy explained. “This is very reminiscent of everything that I’ve seen in the West Bank… I feel like I’ve been here before.”
Disturbing footage of the confrontation, circulated widely across social media platforms, captured extreme rhetoric from pro-Israel counter-protesters. The crowd chanted “There is no Palestine, we flattened it”, while even children in the counter-protest were recorded shouting misogynistic slurs at pro-Palestine and anti-apartheid demonstrators. Online footage also shows anti-Zionist activists entering the event space to disrupt the proceedings and publicly denounce the trade of illegally seized Palestinian land.
Criticism of the event extended far beyond the protest line. More than 100 sitting British Members of Parliament have joined human rights groups in calling on the UK government to block the gathering over its explicit ties to illegal settlement expansion. For many Jewish activists opposing Israeli apartheid, the event held at a British synagogue represents a profound betrayal of Jewish values and history. Paul, one of the Jewish pro-Palestine activists speaking to Middle East Eye from the protest, emphasized that the occupation and displacement of Palestinians violates core tenets of his faith.
“I’m a true practising and very proud Jew who sees what’s going on between Israel and the Palestinians as an abomination of Judaism,” Paul said. “This event is land theft. They are trading land to explicitly only a Jewish population in order to organise settlers to move to their apartheid state. And in the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, we say this is a disgrace to Jewish history of resistance against fascism and racism. They are the fascists, they are the racists, and we will not stand for a moment while they trade in Palestinian land.”
Amnesty International UK has echoed these criticisms, framing events like this London gathering as “apartheid and annexation with a sales pitch”. Ahead of the event, legal advocacy group The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians delivered an official legal notice to Edgware United Synagogue, formally warning leadership of the “serious legal and reputational concerns regarding the event” hosted on their property.
Maya Saad, a Middle East Eye reporter covering the protest on the ground, confirmed that cross-party political opposition and widespread rights advocacy had failed to convince the UK government to intervene to cancel the event, leaving protesters to challenge the gathering directly outside the venue. The confrontation marks the latest high-profile flashpoint in growing global tensions over Israeli settlement expansion and apartheid policies toward Palestinians, as grassroots movements push for stronger governmental action to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law.