“You are quite openly Jewish”, a Londoner was told by police as they threatened him with arrest for causing a “breach of the peace” by being Jewish near a Palestine protest at the weekend.
Update 1830: Met Police Response
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police has now set out more of their position on a man being told “you are quite openly Jewish” as he was being threatened with arrest, although
“The use of the term ‘openly Jewish’ by one of our officers is hugely regrettable”, said Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, but nevertheless the senior officer appeared to blame Jewish people in central London for being “provocative”.
He said: “In recent weeks we’ve seen a new trend emerge, with those opposed to the main protests appearing along the route to express their views. The fact that those who do this often film themselves while doing so suggests they must know that their presence is provocative, that they’re inviting a response and that they’re increasing the likelihood of an altercation.”
Meanwhile Falter again asserts that being Jewish in London is not an act of provocation or protest.
The original story continues below
The Metropolitan Police are ‘gaslighting’ the public by continuing to insist the frequent Palestine protests in central London do not post a threat to Jewish Londoners, the Campaign Against Antisemitism has said after its director was prevented from going on a walk after synagogue on Saturday as his path was crossed by an “anti-Israel protest”. In footage of the incident, where Campaign Against Antisemitism Chief Executive Gideon Falter’s path is blocked by several police officers, he said “I don’t want to stay here, I want to leave” but is told he will not be permitted to go his intended direction.
His choices would be to be escorted in the opposite direction from the area, or stay put and face arrest, he was told. An identify-obscured police sergeant is recorded as having said: “no, sir. I don’t want anyone antagonising anyone, and at the moment sir, you are quite openly Jewish, this is a pro-Palestinian march, I’m not accusing you of anything but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.”
Falter is later told: “…if you choose to remain here because you are causing a breech of the peace with all these other people you will be arrested… because your presence here is antagonising a large group of people, and we can’t deal with all of them if they attack you because your presence is antagonising them.”
Later reflecting on the incident, Falter said he believed officers on the ground had been placed in an impossible situation by senior command. He said: “for months we have been told that when anti-Israel protests course through London, it is perfectly safe for Jews… …after months of being gaslit by the Met, it’s not safe for Jews to be walking in the presence of these protests. And was there anything so crazy about what we were trying to do, just walking around our home city on a Saturday? Is this something we are willing to accept, that now the police have to keep Jews away?”.
The Metropolitan Police made a small response to the footage and the discussion around it, and cleaved to their line that: “We are aware of this video and fully acknowledge the worry it has caused… Everyone has the right to travel throughout the capital in safety.”
The Jewish Chronicle cites former Labour politician, now cross-bench peer Lord Austin who said the spactacle of police officers threatening to arrest members of the public on the grounds of being “quite openly Jewish” as “completely unacceptable”.
The incident is not the first time the London Metropolitan Police have been accused of two-tier policing, and particularly of the frequent Palestine-Hamas, anti-Israel protests which have become a frequent fixture in the city since the massive terror attack last year. Indeed, just this weekend a 38-year-old Iranian man who was counter-protesting was arrested for carrying a banner calling Hamas “terrorists” despite this being the actual legal view of the British government.
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