A dissident from Iran has accused protesters on Saturday of being “pro-Hamas” after he was chased down on the streets of London for waving an Israeli flag.
Vahid Beheshti, an Iranian activist who opposes the radical Islamist regime of the Ayatollah in his home country, was mobbed and chased by anti-Israel activists during the large demonstration in the British capitol this weekend.
Footage from the incident showed at least one of the protesters carrying a picture of former Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump in 2020. Others can be heard shouting at Beheshti, accusing him of being a “murderer”.
He went on to claim that one of the protesters threatened to “behead” him and that the individual was later arrested while in possession of a “large knife”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Beheshti said: “I would not call them Palestinian supporters, I would call them Hamas supporters, and Islamic Republic of Iran supporters, because they were carrying the picture of Qasem Soleiman, they were carrying the pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Iran’s current ruler) and saying ‘we love the Islamic Republic of Iran’.”
“And one of the guys, after the third attack, was threatening me that he is going to behead me and cut [off] my head. Even in Farsi, I could hear them shouting ‘we are going to kill you, we are going to do this, we are going to come after you’.”
Beheshti has had a fatwa put on his head for demanding that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be listed as a terror organisation in Britain and recently embarked upon a 72-day hunger strike to protest the IRGC.
He said that the incident will not deter his activism, saying: “I came here to have my freedom of speech and my basic human right. I am not going to censor myself in the 21st century in King Charles Street in front of the Foreign Office in the UK.
“We have to be able to tolerate each other, they have their flags, I have my flags. I am supporting Palestinians of course but there is a difference between Palestinians and Hamas and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“We have a heart for both sides, civilians are dying on both sides. But Hamas is different from the Palestinians, Hezbollah is different from Palestinians, Jihad Islam is different.”
The Metropolitan Police have so far not commented on the incident. However, the London police force has issued a call to the public to help identify two women who were pictured at the pro-Palestinian protest wearing patches appearing to celebrate the Hamas terrorists who paraglided into a music festival in Southern Israel last week where at least 260 people were killed.