Robert Jenrick has called for an end to “two-tier policing” after a protester carrying a placard branding Hamas terrorists was arrested.
The former Immigration Minister slammed the “shameful” incident and accused Scotland Yard of “prioritising community relations”.
Niyak Ghorbani, 37, an Iranian counter-protester was at the centre of a brawl amid predominantly peaceful pro-Palestine protest in London on Saturday.
Scotland Yard has insisted he was not arrested for carrying a sign saying “Hamas is terrorist”. But Met chiefs faced fresh accusations of double standards as other protesters celebrated Houthi terror attacks in the Red Sea.
Mr Jenrick said: “This shameful incident is the logical endpoint of consistently prioritising ‘community relations’ over even-handedly enforcing the law: the mob is emboldened and free-speech is threatened. It’s a chilling inversion of what law-enforcement is about. Two-tier policing must end.”
Shocking footage showed one of the arresting officers ripping the sign out of the Iranian man’s hands and screwing it up.
Mr Ghorbani told The Mail on Sunday: “I think the police are totally wrong. It is a total double standard. It is one rule for the Palestinian protesters and another for me. It is hypocrisy.”
During the marches on Saturday, a man with a megaphone shouted “Yemen, Yemen, do us proud” while a crowd chanted in response, “Turn another ship around.”
Scotland Yard confirmed the man was de-arrested after a review.
The UK government states that Hamas is a terrorist organisation.
A statement, shared on Sunday on Twitter, read: “A video has been posted [on Twitter] alleging officers arrested a man for having an anti-Hamas placard.
“This is not accurate. He was arrested after an altercation was ongoing and officers intervened to prevent a breach of the peace. He was arrested for assault.
“Officers then fully reviewed the footage of the incident and he was later dearrested.
“The arrest was not made in relation to the placard.”
Ministers and officials are working on a new definition of extremism, with groups captured by the term set to be effectively blacklisted by the Government and public bodies, and cut off from public funding and engagement.
Communities Secretary Michael Gove is expected to set out the new definition in the coming week in the wake of the latest pro-Palestinian march, which saw tens of thousands of people protest in London about the suffering in Gaza.
Mr Gove warned some of the “good-hearted” people who have taken part in the series of protests since the Israel-Hamas war began could have inadvertently given credence to events organised or attended by extremists.
Mr Gove told the Sunday Telegraph the new definition of extremist groups would help protesters decide whether to attend pro-Palestinian events.
“If we’re clear about the nature of extremist organisations, then I think that means that some of the people – and there are good-hearted people who go on these marches, I don’t agree with them, but they’re moved by suffering and they want peace – but it may help some of them to question who are organising some of these events. I won’t go into details now, but we will later,” he said.
“Some of the events that have been organised have been organised by extremist organisations.
“That doesn’t mean that people who have gone on them are extremist, quite the opposite. But it means that you can begin to question: do you really want to be lending credence to this organisation? If you do, fair enough. But now there is no excuse for ignorance.”
Focusing on the chant of “from the river to the sea” – a reference to a Palestinian state stretching from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean – Mr Gove said “some of what’s said on these marches springs from an extremist ideology”.
“‘From the river to the sea’ is not a call for peace … when you’re saying ‘from the river to the sea’, you’re explicitly saying: ‘I want to see the end of Israel as a Jewish state, the Jewish homeland erased’.
“Now, be clear about that and be clear about what that means.
“Be clear about the fact that you know a key Islamist demand is the erasure of what they see as the ‘Zionist entity’ or the ‘crusader Zionist state’.
“And, therefore, let’s be clear that there is a difference between a cry for peace and the legitimisation of an extremist position which intimidates and leads to hate.”
The Government’s new definition will replace one in the existing Prevent counter-radicalisation programme, giving “more specificity”, and will enable the Government and other public bodies to ban funding and engagement with Islamist and far-right groups.
