Met Police adviser led ‘from the river to the sea’ chant

What idiot selects these ‘advisors’?

A hard-Left activist who was filmed leading chants of “from the river to the sea” at a pro-Palestinian rally is an adviser to the police on their response to protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict, The Telegraph can disclose.

Attiq Malik, a solicitor who has also railed against “global censorship by the Zionists”, was present in the police operations room during protests last month.

A video uncovered by The Telegraph shows Mr Malik instigating chants of “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in 2021, a slogan described by Downing Street as “deeply offensive” to many.

The disclosure of his role is likely to further embarrass the Metropolitan Police after weeks of criticism of the force’s handling of protests at which officers took no action in response to calls for “jihad”.

This newspaper can reveal that Mr Malik is chairman of London Muslim Communities Forum, which is described on a dedicated page of the Metropolitan Police’s website as a “strategic advisory body for the Met”.  Among its formal objectives are to “inform and help shape police policy and procedure at a strategic level”.

In this capacity, Mr Malik was invited to observe the Metropolitan Police’s response to protests from the force’s operations room in Lambeth, south London, last month.

Senior officers in the operations room, overseen by the “gold commander” responsible for policing each march, have been making decisions about whether particular chants or behaviour constitute criminal offences.

Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has warned that the “river to the sea” chant may “be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased”.

She has asked police to consider whether its use in certain circumstances may constitute an offence, but the force faced criticism for taking a contrary view.

A senior Tory expressed disbelief at Mr Malik’s role, saying it raised “serious questions”.

The senior Tory said: “Does the Met really want to be seen to be associated with people who are chanting what are demonstrably anti-Semitic slogans?”

Mr Malik is a criminal defence solicitor based in Luton, who has attended previous pro-Palestinian protests as a “legal observer” and has uploaded videos to social media advising thousands of followers of their rights at protests in recent weeks.

Mr Malik is a criminal defence solicitor based in Luton, who has attended previous pro-Palestinian protests as a “legal observer” and has uploaded videos to social media advising thousands of followers of their rights at protests in recent weeks. He has appeared on the television programme 24 Hours in Police Custody, when he became known for advising clients of their legal right to state “no comment”.  He has been involved in a series of legal cases against police forces, including the Metropolitan Police.

…his presence in the Lambeth operations room is likely to cause particular concern, given that the Metropolitan Police had said that it was in that room that its officers were making decisions about whether particular behaviour is illegal.

A video uncovered by this newspaper shows Mr Malik addressing a protest in Luton against an earlier Israeli offensive in Gaza in May 2021 . . . He ended his address by instigating chants of “from the river to the sea”, encouraging those at the rally to respond with “Palestine will be free”.

It is understood that representatives of other faiths were present in the operations room at the same time as Mr Malik.

Mr Malik did not respond to questions.