A Jewish protester has revealed he was arrested and charged for holding up a placard which mocked a terrorist leader.
The British man, who spoke to The Telegraph anonymously, said he was detained last September over the cartoon showing the former secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah with a pager and the words ‘beep, beep, beep’.
He held the sign up during a counter-demonstration against a pro-Palestinian march in London.
It was in reference to an attack by Israel in Lebanon, known as Operation Grim Beeper, in which pagers and walkie-talkies with explosives hidden inside.
The attack killed 42 people, including Hezbollah terrorists and 12 civilians, and injured a further 4,000 civilians.
Nasrallah survived Operation Grim Beeper but was murdered in an air strike just a week later.
Police repeatedly questioned the man if he thought the cartoon would offend ‘clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel’ protesters. Hezbollah is a proscribed terror group in the UK.
It follows a series of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression, including journalist Allison Pearson who was quizzed at home over a social media post and retired constable Julian Foulkes who was arrested by his former police force after warning about the threat of anti-Semitism in Britain.
On Friday, the Met Police told The Telegraph the officer ‘clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Palestinian’.
The man said he was detained last September over the cartoon showing the former secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah with a pager and the words ‘beep, beep, beep’
Pictured: Former secretary-general of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah in 2013
Pro-Palestinian people marched from Piccadilly to Whitehall in their latest protest last week
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘A man was charged following a careful consideration of the evidence. We will reflect on the CPS decision not to proceed with the case, applying any learning to future investigations.
‘The officer who interviewed the man clearly misspoke when she described those in the protest as pro-Hezbollah instead of pro-Palestinian.
‘We take support for proscribed organisations very seriously. Since October 2023, we have made 28 arrests under the Terrorism Act for offences at protests including wearing clothing or displaying symbols that indicated support for such groups, including Hezbollah. This is in addition to the hundreds of arrests made for other offences.’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp condemned the arrest, saying the man was arrested ‘because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organisation’.
He told The Telegraph: ‘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.’
It comes after pro-Palestinians marching through Piccadilly Circus last week clashed with a smaller counter-protest, organised by the group Stop The Hate.
Separated by barriers, the two groups hurled insults such as ‘scum’ at each other and were seen making rude gestures.
Palestine supporting protesters paraded banners reading ‘stop arming Israel’ while chanting ‘from the River to the Sea’, as pro-Israelis screamed ‘terrorist supporters off our streets’.
Some verbal clashes boiled over into pushing and shoving, with the police forced to intervene.
During the march, pro-Palestinians clashed with a smaller counter-protest, organised by the group Stop The Hate, in Piccadilly Circus
Julian Foulkes (pictured) was arrested by Kent Police cops in November 2023 after he questioned a supporter of pro-Palestine demonstrations on X
Last November, columnist Allison Pearson revealed she had been quizzed by police over a social media post
Hundreds of Metropolitan Police officers were present in central London after the force imposed conditions under the Public Order Act denying participants in both protests from assembling before 12pm or veering away from the pre-planned route.
Meanwhile, police were told to ‘spend their time catching actual criminals’ earlier this month after a retired constable was handcuffed by his former force over a social media post warning about the threat of anti-Semitism in Britain.
Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham, was detained at his home by six officers from Kent Police – the very same force he had given ten years of his life to – after he questioned a supporter of pro-Palestine demonstrations on X.
In the context of a rise in protests at the start of the Israel-Hamas war – and reports of an anti-Semitic mob storming a Russian airport – Mr Foulkes tweeted an activist: ‘One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…’
‘Shocked’ and ‘flabbergasted’, Mr Foulkes was later handcuffed on his own doorstep by uniformed officers equipped with batons and pepper spray.
Kent Police has since apologised for the ‘distress’ caused to one of their former colleagues.
Condemning the arrest of Mr Foulkes, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said last night: ‘Arresting a 71 year old man and holding him for hours in a police cell over a tweet that was obviously not criminal is completely unacceptable.
‘The Police should spend their time catching actual criminals, not policing offence on Twitter.’
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told police to ‘spend their time catching actual criminals’, while columnist Allison Pearson, who was quizzed by police over a social media post herself, described it as ‘Stasi Britain’
Meanwhile, there were also two incidents last November where writers were questioned by police over their social media posts.
One of those was Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, who was investigated over a tweet she had posted, and then quickly deleted, a year prior in November 2023.
Ms Pearson revealed officers from Essex Police knocked on her door on Remembrance Day last November to inform her that she was at the centre of a probe over allegedly stirring up racial hatred on social media.
However, they could not give her any details about what post was being investigated or who complained. Essex Police dropped its investigation after the force was advised by Crown Prosecution Service lawyers that it’s case failed to meet the evidential test.
‘I was obviously shocked and devastated in the first place to have had the police on my doorstep on Remembrance Sunday, of all days, telling me I had put something up on social media which they said was stirring up racial hatred,’ she told the Mail at the time.
Ms Pearson has also reacted to the arrest of Mr Foulkes, posting: ‘Police are out of control. In Stasi Britain, Julian Foulkes, a retired police officer, was handcuffed, home searched, because he tweeted his concern about anti-Semitism.
‘Why don’t police care about ‘Jew haters’?’
