Scotland Yard arrested a Jewish protester after he held up a placard mocking a frontrunner of Hezbollah. The Brit, who requested to stay nameless out of fears for his security, was detained in September final 12 months and charged with racially aggravated harassment after displaying a picture of Hassan Nasrallah with a pager and the phrases “beep, beep, beep”.
The placard was a satirical tackle an assault aimed toward Hezbollah terrorists by Israel wherein exploding pagers and walkie-talkies killed 42 folks. Nasrallah survived the assault, however was killed per week later in an airstrike. According to the Telegraphthe Jewish man held the placard for fewer than three minutes at a counter-demonstration in Swiss Cottage, North Londonon September 20.
During a police interview, the person was requested if he thought the picture would offend activists on a pro-Palestinian march. This was regardless of Hezbollah being a terror group proscribed by Britain.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp claimed what occurred was one other instance of “two-tier policing”. He advised the Telegraph, which first reported the arrest: “In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London.
“Yet this man was apparently arrested as a result of he may need offended supporters of a banned terrorist organisation. This is two-tier policing in motion.
“The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone.
“The police generally flip a blind eye when making use of the regulation is likely to be tough, but over-police at different instances. The regulation ought to be utilized equally to all, robustly and with out worry or favour. That shouldn’t be what occurred right here.”
Lord Walney, a former extremism tsar, told the same publication: “We all perceive the police have a tough job stopping protests escalating into dysfunction, however the concept that officers intervened on the facet of supporters of a proscribed terrorist organisation is grotesque.”
He called for the incident to be investigated and the Met should issue a full apology if the Jewish man’s claims are upheld.
The Metropolitan Police said the officer had clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Palestinian.
A spokesman for the force added that the man was charged following a careful consideration of the evidence and that the Met would attempt to learn lessons from the episode.
The spokesman said: “We will replicate on the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) determination to not proceed with the case, making use of any studying to future investigations.”
Scotland Yard’s spokesman said the force takes support for proscribed organisations very seriously and since October 2023 it has made 28 arrests under the Terrorism Act for offences at protests, including wearing clothing or displaying symbols that indicated support for such groups, including Hezbollah.
He added: “This is along with the a whole lot of arrests made for different offences.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2059641/met-police-charge-jewish-hezbollah-protester