Police in London arrested prominent gay rights activist Peter Tatchell on Saturday for carrying a sign that read “Globalize the intifada” at an anti-Israel rally.
The slogan, which many interpret as a call to kill Jews, earned Tatchell an arrest on “suspicion of a public order offence,” the Metropolitan Police said on X.
Following the slaying of 15 people at a Chanukah party in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 14, allegedly by two jihadists, the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police said in a joint statement on Dec. 17 they would not allow the slogan to be shown at protests, on the grounds that it can be interpreted as endorsing or inciting violence.
Tatchell was born in Australia.
“The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law. The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offence,” Tatchell’s foundation said in a statement.
The Peter Tatchell Foundation, which promotes various left-wing causes, said the arrest was “part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalize peaceful protests.”
Most of the United Kingdom’s Jewish population of about 313,000 people live in London and Manchester, according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Those two metropolises had seen 66% of the 1,847 antisemitic incidents documented nationwide in 2024 by the Community Security Trust (CST), British Jewry’s security unit.
On Dec. 23, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was released from custody after spending several hours under arrest in London. She was arrested with others at an anti-Israel protest that featured messages of support for Palestine Action, a domestic terrorist group.
Palestine Action was outlawed on July 2 after its followers vandalized two aircraft at a Royal Air Force base on June 20. That attack followed several others, often on Israeli-owned firms, including Elbit Systems.
The British Home Office had sought the proscription under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The measure, passed by a wide majority in the House of Commons (385 to 26), made it a crime to belong to or support Palestine Action, placing it on the same legal footing in the U.K. as groups such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
The House of Lords also backed the ban, and the Court of Appeal in London rejected an appeal to block it.
Several Palestine Action suspected terrorists are on trial in the U.K. for an attack in the country’s north, where one of them was filmed bludgeoning a police officer.
