Met needs to rebuild people’s trust, PM says
Britain’s biggest police force needs to rebuild the trust of the Jewish community after an antisemitism campaigner was threatened with arrest at a pro-Palestine demonstration, the Prime Minister has said.
Rishi Sunak said he shared public anger over exchanges between Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, and officers policing the protest in central London on 13 April. One officer described Mr Falter, who was wearing a kippah, as “openly Jewish”.
But Mr Sunak said he has confidence in the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, if the commissioner works to rebuild the confidence and trust of the Jewish community and the wider public.
Sir Mark has faced calls to resign from Mr Falter and the former home secretary, Suella Braverman.
The Prime Minister told a press conference: “I share the shock and the anger that many are feeling when they saw the clips over the weekend.
“And you know what I would say about Mark Rowley and the police: they do have a difficult job. But what happened was clearly wrong. And it’s right that they’ve apologised for that.
“I do have confidence in him, but that’s on the basis that he works to rebuild the confidence and trust of not just the Jewish community, but the wider public.”
Representatives of Jewish community groups including the Community Security Trust (CST) and London Jewish Forum met Sir Mark and Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, who leads public order policing, yesterday. The CST said it would continue to push for a reduction in the number of pro-Palestine protests permitted in central London.
It said following the meeting: “We urge the police and Government to work together to find ways to limit this impact through reducing the number of protests, moving them to less disruptive locations and acting firmly and consistently whenever offences are committed.”
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, gave Sir Mark his “full confidence” after their meeting yesterday. “He’s quite clear of the importance of making sure all communities in London are safe and feel safe,” Mr Khan said.
Last night, Sir Mark told The Guardian that the sergeant at the heart of the row would not face any disciplinary measures.
I believe that Falter went to the march looking for trouble
It is tempting to see Gideon Falter as a modern-day Rosa Parks, an ordinary citizen who has shone a light on injustice by asserting an inalienable human right, in his case the freedom merely to cross the road in London’s Aldwych. There is another view, however: that Mr Falter deliberately provoked a headline-grabbing confrontation with a police officer who was simply trying to keep him safe while a pro-Palestinian march was taking place.
Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was putting to the test the Metropolitan Police’s claim that the streets of London are safe for Jewish people when there are protests taking place. Wearing a yarmulke (the skull cap that Jewish men wear as a sign of respect to God), he attempted to cross the road, in the midst of a march, and was prevented from doing so by a police officer.
“You are quite openly Jewish,” said the officer. “This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.” Is this, not only a clumsy piece of racial profiling, but also a fundamental abrogation of Falter’s human rights? Or is it any different from the policing at, say, a football ground where opposing fans are kept apart for their own safety?
I believe that Falter, despite his explanation that he was simply having a stroll with friends after going to synagogue and the practised innocent tone to his enquiry, went looking for trouble.
But then, you may say, so did Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat to a white man. The difference is that Parks’ intention was clear: to expose the egregious prejudice against black people in the America of the 1950s.
I’m not sure what Falter was trying to achieve through his act of simple defiance, other than to illustrate the difficulties the Met Police face in the even-handed policing of political marches, balancing their responsibilities with others’ rights, at a time of raised tensions and divisiveness.
Falter says that, in not being allowed to cross a road in central London, he has proved that the capital’s streets are not safe for Jews. In a 13-minute video recording of the conversation between Falter and the police officer broadcast by Sky News, it is
Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, speaking to a Metropolitan Police officer during a recent pro-Palestinian march in London
clear that, under extremely difficult circumstances, the officer is trying his best to tread a very difficult line between keeping the peace and protecting Falter’s rights.
But rather than take my view on the rights and wrongs here, better listen to the Community Security Trust, a charity whose purpose is to provide safety for Britain’s Jews, and which has played a pivotal role in highlighting the rise in antisemitism since the latest conflict began.
Of the incident involving Falter, it says that “the context and detail [were] lost in the heat of controversy. An individual officer tried to do the right thing but ended up making things worse in a very difficult moment.”
The CST makes the valid point that it is the marches themselves, or rather the antisemitic sentiments expressed by some marchers, which make Jews uneasy and feel threatened, and question how long the protests will be allowed to continue.
But this is not the effect of Falter’s fight to assert his freedom. All nuance has been lost, and instead it has turned the Met Police into villains. Politicians seeking an easy target have rounded on them, and there have been calls for the Commissioner to resign.
I know blame culture is a ubiquitous feature of today’s society, but I really don’t think it’s fair that the individual policeman, or the force in general, should carry the can here.
The officer was no match for Falter’s forensic questioning any more than a junior politician could stand up to Jeremy Paxman. But that doesn’t automatically point to a wider truth. Sometimes one plus one doesn’t even make two. Of course, mistakes have been made in the policing of the marches, but preventing Gideon Falter from crossing the road is not one of them.