PACE

This situation with Gideon Falter, Chief Executive (some say Chairman) of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, whiffs to me of a setup and artifice. The fact Suella Braverman is echoing his call for Sir Mark Rowley to resign makes it doubly so. She's one of those faux Conservatives who believe government should be able to break the law to achieve its aims, so I can't trust a word she says and suspect her motives.

I heard an interview with Falter yesterday where he said he wasn't wearing a badge or anything indicating he was Jewish. He was wearing a kippah, for heaven's sake. Unless one is Orthodox, the kippah is usually only worn in a synagogue, not when walking the streets. The man is an activist and therefore has an agenda and his organisation has openly stated it the protest marches banned. He also has previous for antagonising protesters. He wanted to be identified as jewish.

He was walking across a pro-Palestine demonstration - a demonstration which, while peaceful, has elements within it which are anti-Semitic. Falter was potentially placing himself in danger. The protest, at the time, however, was peaceful and lawful.

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) allows a constable to arrest someone without a warrant if they have reasonable grounds to believe that arrest is necessary for one of several reasons, and being a danger to themselves is one of these.

Falter, during his interview on the radio, said that a black person walking in front of an EDL protests wouldn't have been similarly arrested. However, they would if there was a risk of a situation kicking off and that black person refused to obey a police request to get away from the area. It's far easier to take someone into protective custody than to tackle a crowd with limited numbers of police, which might lead to injuries or even deaths.

Strangely enough, we've become addicted to a Radio 4 comedy series called It's A Fair Cop, where a former police sergeant, Alfie Moore, does a hilarious comedy routine based on actual cases he's been involved with, changing the names, obviously. He polls his audience on what they would do in certain situations and one of his cases, which we listened to last week, was startlingly similar to this situation. The vast majority of the audience said they would not have arrested the person in his historic case, whereas he did, and he quoted the relevant section of PACE that allowed him to do so.

In 2017, 250 academics complained of the Israel lobby’s repeated attempts to link academic criticism of Israel, and support for the Palestinian people, with anti-semitism. These moves were “outrageous interferences with free expression” and “direct attacks on academic freedom”. The group said “we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for more than 50 years. It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about anti-semitism”

In January 2015, the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism wrote: "We were somewhat disappointed to note that not all of the messages from that group (CAA) have been in line with CST's stated approach of seeking to avoid undue panic and alarm." They added "it is important that the leadership do not conflate concerns about activity legitimately protesting Israel's actions with anti-Semitism, as we have seen has been the case on some occasions."

Since 2017, Falter has been on the Executive Board of the Jewish National Fund. JNF UK claims to be "the UK’s leading humanitarian and environmental Israel charity, raising funds for the building blocks of everyday life in Israel such as reservoirs, irrigation systems, desalination plants, forest planting, recycling schemes, roads, housing and healthcare centres." It is the UK wing of the Jewish National Fund, which has been described by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe as "a colonialist agency of ethnic cleansing". The JNF supports Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

There are elements who want the Gaza protests banned. Braverman is one of them and she will do anything the Israeli government wants. If Braverman is involved, indeed any Conservative, then I smell a rat. In his radio interview, Falter called the protesters a lawless mob, which it wasn't.

Yes, anyone should be free to walk London's streets without fear, but there are circumstances under which that could give cause for concern among those charged with maintaining the peace. Maintaining the peace is sometimes more important than an individual's rights, which is why PACE contains that section. You are not free to walk the streets if the circumstances under which you do so could cause a breach of the peace that the police cannot handle, especially if you have an agenda.

I think some activists are not doing the Jews any favours and it won't be long before the term 'playing the anti-Semitism card' will be as used as often as 'playing the race card' is. The police have an unenviable job and have my full support in this instance. Imagine if someone unknown to the police had run out from the crowd and stabbed Falter - he'd be dead and complaining even louder.