Protester holding ‘Hamas Are Terrorists’ sign arrested by police

For the first time since the Gaza conflict began in October, an official counter-demonstration was staged in solidarity with both Israel and British Jews who have felt intimidated by repeated protests from Palestinian supporters likening Israel’s tactics to the Holocaust.

Speaking before they gathered outside Westminster Cathedral, the organisers, who describe themselves as a “collective of concerned British citizens of all faiths”, said: “We will be asserting our democratic right to counter-protest. “We will be promoting Government policy, ‘Hamas are a terrorist group.’ We will be reminding people, ‘Rape is not resistance’.”

From the Telegraph and 

A counter-protestor carrying a banner reading ‘Hamas Are Terrorists’ was arrested after holding the sign aloft as pro-Palestinian activists filed past him.

Niyak Ghorbani was pulled to the ground and handcuffed by officers after an incident took place close to a pro-Palestinian march in London. As police held him down he shouted “Shame on you” before saying “I wrote down Hamas is a terrorist organisation… but they arrested me”.

March, '24
Hamas are a terrorist organisation. I stand with Niyak Ghorbani… pic.twitter.com/Kw4CVLhF4J

— Steve 🎬 (@MyFilmClips) March 9, 2024

Onlookers could be heard criticising the apparent double standard of police treatment of Mr Ghorbani against the seemingly softer approach towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The 38-year-old was de-arrested and released shortly after, with police saying he had been held for his own safety. They deny that the arrest was to do with his poster.

The group, whose counter-protest was designed to be located some distance away from the route of the latest national pro-Palestinian march, said they wanted to reclaim London as “a bastion of democracy, diversity, and multiculturalism”. Responding to claims that parts of central London had become no-go areas for Jewish families at weekends, because of the Palestinian protests, the organisers said: “London should not be ruled by fear, by mobs, by aggression, and by threats. We expect the police to fully uphold that right on Saturday and that any interventions will be to ensure that our peaceful right of protest is not interfered with by hateful speech, intimidation, or violence.”

…Thousands of people filed through central London in the latest national protest against Israel’s bombing of Gaza following the Oct 7 massacre by Hamas. One pro-Palestine activist on the march could be seen wearing a protective helmet and carrying a riot shield.

The bearded man, whose helmet was similar to those used by reporters in combat zones, paraded holding the riot shield with the slogan: “Resistance is justified when your land is occupied” as the singer Charlotte Church walked at the head of the march to the US Embassy. Church was previously criticised after leading a choir in a rendition of a chant of “from the river to the sea”,  which is widely condemned as anti-Semitic.Voice of an angel; sadly her moral compass looks elsewhere. . . a man with bloodstained handprints on a hospital tunic carried a doll to signify the thousands of children killed in Gaza. A number of placards showed support for the Houthi militants in Yemen targeting ships going through the Red Sea.

Police officers were overheard being told over their radios that if they heard chants of “Yemen, Yemen turn those ships around” – in reference to the Houthi attacks – they should make “active interventions”.

The Metropolitan Police said the policing of pro-Palestine protests since Hamas’s Oct 7 attack on Israel has required 35,464 officer shifts, and more than 5,200 officer rest days to be cancelled, at a cost of £32.3 million.