There has been much astonishment and concern at the support for Islamic extremism by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in response to the atrocities in Israel and subsequent bombardment of Gaza. At Saturday’s demonstration in London, a speaker was filmed declaring: “What is the solution to liberate people in the concentration camp called Palestine? Jihad”, with some men in the crowd echoing: “Jihad, jihad, jihad.”
Demonstrators have repeatedly been chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, a call for the annihilation of Israel. Others have chanted an Arabic slogan that extols Muhammad’s slaughter of the Jews in Khaybar, a 7th-century massacre that acts as a war cry against the Jews for today’s jihadis. And some demonstrators have been waving a black Islamic flag.
While this has been going on under the noses of the police, pro-Israel demonstrators have been prevented from activities that threaten no one. The Campaign Against Antisemitism has been driving vans around London displaying illuminated digital pictures of Israeli children now being held hostage in Gaza. When pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Westminster spotted such a van and started shouting abuse at it, the police insisted the children’s images must be turned off and the van leave central London because it risked breaching the peace and endangering its driver and volunteer.
On Saturday, the group Christian Action Against Antisemitism was forced to call off its planned “Pray for Israel and the Jewish People” demonstration after police warned that participants could be “injured or intimidated” because the event was being portrayed as an attack on Muslims. The organisers, who on police advice had already moved the event’s location from its original spot outside the Israeli embassy, said they felt the police had “silenced” them.
With antisemitic offences having increased in London more than tenfold in the past two weeks, it seems to the Jewish community as if the police are taking the side of those producing such threats.
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Several politicians have expressed fury and incredulity that the police have allowed this to happen with only a handful of arrests. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, says, however, that inadequacies in the law make it difficult to prosecute.
There are certainly gaps in the law. People can be found guilty of inciting violence or encouraging terrorism only if they direct such incitement at another person or encourage others to “commit, prepare or instigate” terrorist acts. A report in 2021 by Rowley and the former counterextremism tsar Sara Khan said extremists were able to incite hatred because of the “gaping chasm” in British legislation.
The issues here go beyond terrorism. The demonstrations have been creating an atmosphere of anti-Jewish feeling, which is fuelling both verbal and physical attacks. Saying that this is just about Israel doesn’t wash. An amendment to the Public Order Act 1986 passed after 9/11 meant it became an offence to incite hatred against people abroad, such as Israeli Jews.
More fundamentally, singling out Israel for existential attack makes Jews everywhere vulnerable to violence. Israel is central to Judaism. The chant “from the river to the sea” singles out Israel as being so evil it should be destroyed. This identifies all Jews who support Israel as accessories to that “evil” and therefore also as targets; and since Jew-haters regard Jews as a monolithic group, all Jews therefore become potential targets.
Context matters. For some Muslims, “jihad” has a peaceful and spiritual meaning. And the black flag imprinted with the declaration of Islamic faith supports no regime. But in the context of such exultant demands to “liberate Palestine”, these become public declarations of holy war and incitement to violence.
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In fact, regardless of gaps in the law, the police do have powers to stop such threatening activities. Under the Public Order Act, if the police believe a demonstration may result in “serious disruption to the life of the community” — meaning “any group of people” that may be affected — or that it is intended to intimidate others, they can require demonstrators to adhere to conditions such as not flying certain flags or chanting specific slogans.
Since these demonstrations have helped create a climate in which Jewish people are being intimidated into avoiding public places or concealing Jewish markers of identity such as kippot or Stars of David, this would certainly appear to be covered by the law. In addition, it’s an offence to use threatening words or behaviour or display any such written material in order to stir up religious hatred.
Instead of using these powers, the police appear to interpret their public order role more narrowly as upholding freedom of speech and preventing one side from attacking the other.
This produces a deeply perverse effect, as illustrated by the fate of the illuminated vans and the Christian prayer meeting. The fact that it’s only the pro-Palestinians who pose a threat of violence plays against the Israel supporters, because to stop the pro-Palestinians becoming violent the police have to stop the Israel supporters from having their say.
The real problem faced by the police is surely the sheer number of people prepared to support a genocidal agenda in Israel and to threaten Jews everywhere. What Britain now sees in its midst is a monster that it has allowed to grow.
