An openly Jewish man wearing a skull cap was trying to cross the road where a pro Palestine march was taking place. He was stopped by a Met Officer who threatened to arrest the man for breaching the peace because of his openly Jewish appearance. He was merely trying to cross the road. Yes tensions run high amongst these demonstrations, but this person is a citizen going about their daily life. Why should the onus be on him to disappear, surely that onus should be on the demonstrators not to target individuals to take out any grievances. Possibly the Officer was trying to head off any clashes, but I think there is something worryingly wrong and discriminatory in telling a demographic, any demographic, they are not free to move about on the streets of their own country.
Your thoughts on the matter.
GrannyGravy13
The police officers says you are obviously Jewish would anyone on here think it acceptable to say to a black man you are obviously black or to a Muslim you are obviously muslim ?
Gideon was making a point on his way back from his synagogue that London is not safe for Jews whilst Palestinian supporters are given carte blanche including not being rebuked or arrested for antisemitism…
This 👏👏👏
GrannyGravy13
Germanshepherdsmum
A different agenda? Such as calling this man out for deliberately seeking to cause trouble?
A Jew has as much right as anyone else to walk freely in our capital city, to deny this time and time again is antisemitism in all but name…
The marchers were denying that right, not the police.
So the protesters did nothing wrong! They didn’t call Gideon Falter scum ornazi? If GF was in danger, who was threatening him with danger? Who was likely to attack him? Why was he in danger? I’m not Jewish, would I have been in danger? Why do the majority of Jews stay in their houses every weekend now?
Is there a ref for the full Sky video please?
I would agree that the policeman was trying to protect him - the ‘openly Jewish’ comment IMO was just very clumsily worded - except that I don’t know who could excuse or condone the threat to arrest him if he didn’t comply.
Why was no action taken against those marchers calling him ‘scum’?
The fact is, vocal Muslim factions - I don’t mean those who quietly get on with their lives - are pandered to in the U.K. Officialdom in general would appear to be terrified of upsetting them.
Oreo
Yes, he was making a point and why not? Jewish Londoners are sick to the back teeth of weekend pro Palestinian marches making a no go area for them in central London along with anti semitic comments and behaviour from others towards them wherever they go.
Did the Met officers arrest anyone for hate crime who gathered around them shouting scum! Babykillers! And other insults?
No, they ignored that.The Met go after low hanging fruit every time.
The point that was being made here is stop these marches which cause hate and division, it’s already gone on far too long.
The officer was explaining why Falter was at risk if he walked into the demo at that point. Yes, it was a clumsy choice of words, for which he has of course apologised, but I’m not sure what would have been acceptable. This officer was in the middle of policing a large and potentially volatile demonstration, and suddenly had to micromanage the safety of a small group of people, while being filmed. If he’d been antisemitic, would he even have tried to stop them walking into danger? As it is, reports have gone round the world that he threatened to arrest a man because he is Jewish, which is a complete distortion of what happened.
As for why the officers on the scene didn’t immediately arrest chanting demonstrators for hate crime - do you really think it’s so easy? They’re vastly outnumbered, unarmed, being videoed by both sides in the hope they’ll put a foot wrong, and are, after all, not superhuman. I understand that arrests have been made after CCTV footage was reviewed of incidents at other demos - maybe this will be the case here as well.
Perhaps, as in France, the marches should be banned (though many people would take exception to this as well). Nobody should feel unsafe on the streets of London, so maybe this does need to happen now. In the meantime, this isn’t something the police on the ground have a say in and I’m sure they’d appreciate a bit of support for the dangerous and difficult job they have to do, instead of the usual kicking.
Germanshepherdsmum
A different agenda? Such as calling this man out for deliberately seeking to cause trouble?
A Jew has as much right as anyone else to walk freely in our capital city, to deny this time and time again is antisemitism in all but name…
He meaning the police of course.
Germanshepherdsmum
Your mind is closed to any interpretation but yours Annie. The policeman did his best confronted with GF and his entourage pushing through the police lines, as you will have seen on the Sky video, which I am glad has been released as it shows the true picture, unlike GF’s cameraman’s film. The policeman may have chosen his words clumsily in the heat of the moment, but you condemn him and insult him. And you the widow of a policeman. They deserve our support in trying to keep the peace.
What a thoroughly nasty post
You say Anniebach’s mind is closed, I think you have also closed your mind to how Jewish people are feeling at the moment.
You are trying to justify the police's attitude, Germanshepherdsmum but it seemed clear from what I have seen that they did not have the interests of the Jewish man at heart. He was defending the protestors' right to their anti-semitic slogans and overt hatred.
If their actions were the right ones why the need for apologies?
A different agenda? Such as calling this man out for deliberately seeking to cause trouble?
GrannyGravy13
growstuff I have seen the full video.
London streets are either safe for all, or safe for none.
This was blatant antisemitism, curtailing the rights of a Jewish person to walk freely in London just the same as the pro-Palestinian marchers…
Yes GrannyGravy but some posters have a different agenda.
Meanwhile our Jewish citizens hide in their houses every weekend
And isn't Saturday the Sabbath when Jewish people would want to go to the synagogue?
Perhaps, if there have to be Palestinian protest marches, they should be on any day rather than the Sabbath?
We could, of course, confine Jewish people to certain areas "for their own safety" and so they are not a source of provocation to others.
We could call them ghettos.
Your mind is closed to any interpretation but yours Annie. The policeman did his best confronted with GF and his entourage pushing through the police lines, as you will have seen on the Sky video, which I am glad has been released as it shows the true picture, unlike GF’s cameraman’s film. The policeman may have chosen his words clumsily in the heat of the moment, but you condemn him and insult him. And you the widow of a policeman. They deserve our support in trying to keep the peace.
Germanshepherdsmum
No, there is not only one interpretation. My interpretation is ‘you are clearly Jewish and some people on the march, who are already displaying antisemitic behaviour towards you, may harm you’.
He was there to provoke and film a confrontation - didn’t he do well (at the expense of the policeman who tried to protect him).
That was my thoughts too.
Shelmiss
*Meanwhile our Jewish citizens hide in their houses every weekend.*
This is an interesting point. I’m not hiding in my house but I do feel like I’m hiding in plain sight. I have recently started a new venture where I have met a lot of people. No-one knows I am Jewish….and I am wary of identifying myself as Jewish because of how they would react.
That is Britain in 2024.
I’m half Jewish ( Father) so not really Jewish at all as Mum isn’t.
I still wouldn’t identify as such in life atm apart from anonymous forums, so understand how you feel.
The police officer said ‘you are openly Jewish’ ,
Openly Jewish is the same as openly gay which was used until
the late 1960’s
No, there is not only one interpretation. My interpretation is ‘you are clearly Jewish and some people on the march, who are already displaying antisemitic behaviour towards you, may harm you’.
He was there to provoke and film a confrontation - didn’t he do well (at the expense of the policeman who tried to protect him).
Meanwhile our Jewish citizens hide in their houses every weekend.
This is an interesting point. I’m not hiding in my house but I do feel like I’m hiding in plain sight. I have recently started a new venture where I have met a lot of people. No-one knows I am Jewish….and I am wary of identifying myself as Jewish because of how they would react.
That is Britain in 2024.
Yes, he was making a point and why not? Jewish Londoners are sick to the back teeth of weekend pro Palestinian marches making a no go area for them in central London along with anti semitic comments and behaviour from others towards them wherever they go.
Did the Met officers arrest anyone for hate crime who gathered around them shouting scum! Babykillers! And other insults?
No, they ignored that.The Met go after low hanging fruit every time.
The point that was being made here is stop these marches which cause hate and division, it’s already gone on far too long.
There is only one interpretation of ‘openly Jewish’
To tell a Jew who is wearing a kippah ‘you are openly Jewish’
is anti semitic ‘ . Why did the police officers ignore Gideon being called scum ?
I have watched the SKY video, I saw an evil rewrite of it on
Tik Tok early today,
Apologies for typo my post should have read openly Jewish
The police officers says you are obviously Jewish would anyone on here think it acceptable to say to a black man you are obviously black or to a Muslim you are obviously muslim ?
Gideon was making a point on his way back from his synagogue that London is not safe for Jews whilst Palestinian supporters are given carte blanche including not being rebuked or arrested for antisemitism…
The police officer apologised for using the phrase ( openly Jewish) realising how it might be interpreted, yet Mr Falter insisted on crossing the road. It's not anti semitic to draw a conclusion from someone's behavior and my conclusion is that he wanted someone to react to his presence and for it to be captured on video. I'm well aware that there are some in those marches who are anti semitic just as there are groups of Jews in the march proudly proclaiming their heritage and feeling very safe in doing so. Why would Mr Falter choose to argue with the police? If I had found myself faced with having to wade through a legally organised march to cross the road, I certainly would be pleased to be assisted by the police but for some reason it didn't suit Mr Falter and his camera crew! Draw your own conclusions.
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