An Iranian exile waved the St George’s Cross flag and ate a banana at a pro-Hamas protest in London last week, and was arrested over allegedly making a racist gesture.
Niyak Ghorbani, who self-describes as an “Iranian guest in [the] UK”, has become a frequent fixture at pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests in London in recent months for attending with a sign reading “Hamas are Terrorists”. The sign, while it may be provoking to the protesters, does reflect the legal position of the British government: Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group under the Terrorism Act 2000. Yet, Ghorbani has been arrested several times for the sign.
Now the anti-Hamas activist has been arrested again, but not for carrying a sign, but rather for brandishing then eating a banana, and for carrying the flag of England, the country he was in at the time of the arrest.
British newspaper the Daily Telegraph reports Ghorbani was told by officers that “the flag of St George was sometimes flown by racists and that carrying the banana could be interpreted as a racist gesture”.
Bananas have become a minor anti-Hamas protest symbol in recent weeks following the ‘Palestine Solidarity Encampment’ at the University of California Los Angeles, California, where bananas were banned outright from the protest, apparently because one member of the encampment had an allergy. Indeed, a Breitbart News journalist was told they would only be allowed inside the encampment provided an infectious disease mask was worn, and no bananas or nuts were taken inside.
Taken along with other strict rules at the protest — seen as ironic given the political timbre otherwise of a protest very much against Israel’s borders — the no-banana rule was interpreted as being reasonably absurd and invited some mockery.
It is claimed that in some contexts, a banana is a racist symbol, but Ghorbani says that is not relevant in the case of a pro-Hamas protest in London. He told The Telegraph: “I got one of my two bananas and started eating it. I didn’t make any racist gestures or insults. I was just standing there eating a banana but somebody must have complained about me being racist… I never showed a banana to a black person. I did not see any black person there, and this is completely a fabricated issue. I am a foreigner myself and have never racially insulted anyone. I was only using it like they do in America to make fun of the pro-Palestinian protestors.”
As previously reported, Ghorbani has been arrested several times in the past for, he says, making factual legal statements and counter-protesting pro-Hamas demos. Police say he hasn’t been arrested for his signs, but rather for assaulting members of the crowd, but in the case of a March arrest, Ghorbani was later de-arrested by the Metropolitan Police after they reviewed footage of the incident and discovered he was in fact the one who had been attacked.
The police have also attempted to prevent Ghorbani from attending protests at all, making an order and using bail conditions that stated that he was banned from the area, although this was later overturned by a judge. The same tactics are in use again, however, with bail conditions again applied to the protester after the banana arrest last Saturday.
Per the report, Ghorbani is now banned from entering two central London boroughs whatsoever, and from attending “pro-Palestine” demonstrations in London.