"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" So runs the famous line from Stanley KubrickAn American film director, producer, screenwriter and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Kubrick's movies include The Killing, Spartacus, Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket.'s 1964 masterpiece Dr Strangelove. Today, some say, we have the same idea, phrased differently: "You can't call for a ceasefire here! This is Armistice DayAn armistice is an agreement to end fighting, but not necessarily a declaration of peace: the First World War didn't formally finish until a little later. Armistice Day is not quite the same as Remembrance Sunday, which takes place on the nearest Sunday to November 11th.!"

This Saturday is Armistice Day. People across Britain will pause at 11am to remember the moment, just over 100 years ago, when the brutal fighting of World War One came to an end. The next day, a service of remembrance, attended by top government figures, will be held in London.¹

At the same time, some 70,000 protesters demanding a ceasefire in GazaThe smaller of two Palestinian territories, home to two million people. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by Israel and Egypt. will be marching through the city.

Some in the government are less than pleased about this. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the protests "provocative and disrespectful".² The home secretaryIn Britain, they are responsible for national security, immigration and policing. said it would "desecrateTreat a sacred place with disrespect. " Armistice Day.³

Some think these statements are aimed at putting pressure on the Metropolitan PoliceThe name of London's police force. to ban the march. However, former senior policeman Nick Aldworth says he thinks it will stand firm.⁴

Britain has generally allowed protests to go ahead. But the proposed march on Armistice Day raises a more difficult debate.

At its heart is a question of what we are commemorating on the day. For some, it is a chance to thank veterans, both past and present, for the sacrifices they have made.

They see it as a public ritual in which we all have a duty to participate. This affirms our unity as a society.

For others, the very spirit of Armistice Day is to make use of our hard-won freedoms. Some 300,000 of the veterans who will be honoured on the day fought in World War Two, which brought a genocideThe annihilation of a people, either through killing of its members, or through the suppression of its culture. to an end.

There is no more fitting tribute to those people, they argue, than to march against action UN experts warn is causing a "grave risk of genocide" in our own century.

They think there is more than a hint of racism in the government's comments. Junior minister Claire CoutinhoClaire Coutinho was appointed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on 31 August 2023. said disrupting Armistice Day would not "chime with our British culture of decency".⁵ Some think this implies that the protesters are not really British.

But others think the whole debate is silly. The two events are not being held anywhere near each other, they say. They claim the whole thing is just an excuse to open another front in the culture war.

Yes: Every society needs its rituals. If people opt out of these rituals, or stage rival ones, we will lose all sense of togetherness and society will begin to crumble.

No: This march is not a violation of Armistice Day, but an expression of its founding principle: an end to all wars and to the human suffering caused by them.

Or... What binds us together is not our rituals but our common enjoyment of personal freedom. And there is no higher expression of that freedom than marching for something we believe in, even if it means interrupting a public event.