The Metropolitan Police arrested a Jewish demonstrator after he briefly held a placard satirizing the slain Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah, The Telegraph reported on Friday.
The British man, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety, was detained and charged last September over a cartoon that showed Nasrallah with a pager and the words, “beep, beep, beep.”
According to the paper, the man in the latest case held the placard for less than three minutes during the demonstration in Swiss Cottage, northwest London, on Sept 20, 2023. The area, near the home of Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely, has been targeted almost weekly by pro-Palestinian activists since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre.
The placard satirized a targeted Israeli attack, dubbed Operation Grim Beeper, in which explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies killed 42 people, mostly Hezbollah terrorists. Nasrallah survived, but was killed in an airstrike in the Dahieh suburbs, south of Beirut, a week later.
The Telegraph reported that police repeatedly asked the man—who was part of a counter-demonstration against a pro-Palestinian march—if he believed the image would offend “clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel” activists. Hezbollah is proscribed in the U.K. as a terrorist group.
On Sept. 20, a pro-Palestine demonstrator was filmed in the area shouting, “I love the 7th of October” and “I like any organization that starts with H.” He was arrested under terrorism legislation, but was not charged, The Telegraph said.
The police’s decision to allow pro-Palestinian demonstrators to march through London following the Hamas massacre, including in areas with high Jewish populations and near synagogues, has been highly contentious.
The man’s case is the latest in a string of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression, the paper reported. Last year, The Telegraph reported how columnist Allison Pearson was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests.
The latest case prompted condemnation from senior MPs and peers on both sides of the British Parliament. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said it was an example of “two-tier policing in action.”
“In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London,” he told The Telegraph. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organization.”
He continued, “This is two-tier policing in action. 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 sometimes turn a blind eye when applying the law might be difficult, yet over-police at other times. The law should be applied equally to all, robustly and without fear or favor. That is not what happened here,” the Conservative Party lawmaker said.
