A pro-Israel protester on Wednesday accused police in London of sidelining his protest in favor of anti-Israeli demonstrators in violation of the police’s own guidelines. A police spokesperson disputed this, arguing the pro-Israel demonstrators had a line of sight to the anti-Israel rally they came to oppose, though a video from the protest obtained by JNS only partially supported this claim.
Itai Galmudy, 44, CEO of Stop the Hate UK, said the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday had assigned his group of several dozen protesters a side location off of Euston Road, a major traffic artery, where anti-Israel protesters were allowed to gather against a Jewish-Arab Israeli musical ensemble.
By removing the counter-protesters from Euston Road, police violated its protocol that ensures equal status for protesters and counter-protesters, Galmudy alleged, citing the College of Policing’s published operational advice.
It states that “a key feature of effective protest is that it takes place within sight and sound of the people or organization to whom the protester wishes to deliver their message,” and also that counter-protesters have the same rights.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police told JNS that videos from the protests showed a line of sight between the two gatherings. JNS reviewed a video in which both protests were visible. It showed that a line of sight could theoretically be established from the anti-Israel rally on Euston Road to the side street where the pro-Israel rally was held. However, at the time of filming, a police van obstructed that line of sight, and the counter-protest was not visible or audible.
Galmudy said that diverting the pro-Israel rally away from Euston Road was part of a broader pattern in which police in the United Kingdom sidelined pro-Israel protesters in favor of anti-Israel protesters.
Part of that alleged tendency led to a well-known incident involving Jewish campaigner Gideon Falter, whom London police prevented from crossing a road near a pro-Palestinian march in 2024, supposedly because he was wearing a kippah.
“Jewish people’s rights come second,” Galmudy told JNS.
Last year, the West Midlands Police of Birmingham faced a scandal after it banned Israeli soccer fans from a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and a local team based on fabricated information.
A parliamentary inquiry found that police had relied on inaccurate information, including AI-generated claims, while downplaying threats against Israeli supporters from local residents.
The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee concluded in February that the force had exhibited “confirmation bias” and failed to adequately consult Birmingham’s Jewish community. The Independent Office for Police Conduct opened an investigation into the affair in January.
