- Author, Andre Rhoden-Paul
- Role, BBC News
Rishi Sunak was “appalled” by the way police treated a Jewish man during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in London, a Downing Street source has said.
The Met apologised twice on Friday after an officer described Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) boss Gideon Falter as “openly Jewish”.
On 13 April Mr Falter, who was wearing a kippah skull-cap, was threatened with arrest and told by police his presence was causing a “breach of peace”. He has called for the Met’s commissioner to resign.
Met Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist has written to Mr Falter to offer a private meeting to “apologise to him personally and discuss what more the Met can do to ensure Jewish Londoners feel safe”.
Mr Falter has also asked for a meeting with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
Downing Street said the prime minister had seen the original footage of what happened and was “as appalled as everyone else by the officer calling Mr Falter ‘openly Jewish'”.
The source added it was right the Met apologised, but also criticised the force for “totally mishandling” the situation in which it made an initial apology which it then retracted and followed with a second statement.
“[The prime minister] expects the Met commissioner to account for how it happened and what he will do to ensure officers do more to make Jewish communities in London feel safe – and Sadiq Khan to do his job in holding the Met to account.”
Mayor of London Mr Khan is meeting Sir Mark later on Monday to “discuss community relations” – but it is understood he has full confidence in the commissioner.
New footage has also emerged, recorded by Sky News, which shows Mr Falter telling the police officer he was trying to cross the road.
The video shows the officer tell Mr Falter he “took it upon himself” to deliberately walk “right into the middle” of the march, and said he was “disingenuous” and was trying to “antagonise” others.
The officer said to the campaign boss: “My view is you are looking to try and antagonise things.”
Mr Falter then responded: “I’m not, I’m trying to walk along the pavement.”
‘Treated like a criminal’
Speaking to BBC News, Mr Falter called the experience “frightening” and made him feel like he “was being treated like a criminal for being Jewish”.
The CAA chief executive said the Met’s commissioner had been “curtailing the rights of law-abiding Londoners including the Jewish community to appease lawless mobs”.
“I think it’s time for Sir Mark Rowley to go,” he added.
“We need a new commissioner who understands that the role of policing is… to enforce the law and if the law says that Londoners are able to go wherever they want freely, as long as they’re law abiding, then that’s what they have to enforce.”
But former chief superintendent in the Met Police Dal Babu told BBC Breakfast on Monday that the 13-minute clip of the incident showed “a totally different encounter to the one that Mr Falter has reported”.
Mr Babu said the officer’s “openly Jewish” comment was “not acceptable”. But he added: “What you see [Mr Falter] doing is attempting to go against the march, trying to push past the officers, and I think for 13 minutes the officers showed great restraint.
“They offered to take him to a crossing point, they offered to help him and the group he was with the opportunity to cross at a more appropriate place.
“So the narrative that’s been pushed for the past few days is not accurate.
“Personally, if I was policing that march, I would have been inclined to have arrested him for assault on a police officer and breach of the peace.”
Mr Falter told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Monday that his members often attend pro-Palestinian marches to “force the police to make sure these things are safe for Jewish people” – and he would turn up at the next one.
He said the…
This article was originally published by a www.bbc.com . Read the Original article here. .