‘Openly Jewish’ man threatened with arrest tells Yard chief to quit
SCOTLAND Yard boss Sir Mark Rowley was last night facing calls to resign or be sacked after police threatened an anti-Semitism leader with arrest for being ‘openly Jewish’. Gideon Falter demanded action after he was stopped by police after trying to cross the road near a pro-Palestine march.
Last night, Mr Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: ‘The time has come for Sir Mark Rowley to go. ’
The row started after Mr Falter, 40, was on his way home from a synagogue wearing a kippah skullcap last Saturday.
He was warned that he risked ‘antagonising’ marchers. In a video, posted on X (formerly Twitter), an officer was heard telling Mr Falter that he was ‘worried about the reaction’ protesters might have to his ‘presence’ and ‘part’ of the reason he can’t cross the road is because he is Jewish.
An officer tells Mr Falter: ‘I don’t want anybody antagonising anybody...You are quite opening Jewish . . . I am worried about the reaction to your presence.’
When Mr Falter complained about his arrest threat, a senior office bungled an apology by saying his presence had been ‘provocative’.
Following the incident Met assistant commissioner Matt
Twist first admitted the choice of words was ‘hugely regrettable’.
But in a nowdeleted statement Mr Twist added that Mr Falter’s presence was ‘provocative’, and that his decision to publish the footage on social media would ‘further dent the confidence of many Jewish Londoners’.
The Met deleted the post and apologised for causing ‘further offence’. Mr Falter accused the Met of ‘victim blaming’, adding: ‘The time has come for Sir Mark to go. He must resign or be removed by the Mayor of London and the Home Secretary.’
He said the incident was the ‘inevitable conclusion of six months of inertia’ by police amid almost weekly marches by pro-Palestine activists. He said: ‘[Anti-Israel] protests have made our city centres into no-go zones for Jews every weekend. What the Met under Sir Mark has done to the Jewish community... is utterly unforgivable.’
But Sir Mark insisted: ‘We understand how vulnerable Jewish and Muslim Londoners feel since the terrorist attacks on Israel. Some of our actions have increased this concern. I personally reiterate our apology.’
A spokesman for London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: ‘The way the original incident was dealt with by the Met was concerning and the original response... was insensitive and wrong.’
The Home Office said that being Jewish ‘should never be seen as provocative’.
‘Utterly unforgivable what the Met has done’