Last weekend in London was marked by an unpleasant incident that attracted public attention and provoked a wave of condemnation. Pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside the JW3 cultural center, where a conference on the future of Israel and the Middle East was being held, surrounded and intimidated an elderly Jewish woman who found herself surrounded by them.
As Britain’s Daily Mail reports, this case shows how far political protests can go when used to create an atmosphere of intimidation.
Videos posted on social media show a woman, scared and depressed, trying to make her way through a crowd of protesters, covering her head with her hands. The rowdy activists, wrapped in keffiyehs and waving flags and banners, loudly chant slogans and beat drums, while other elderly members of the community cover their ears to block out hostile shouts. As they tried to enter the building, the crowd shouted: “Palestine is not your home” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
AND THE POLICE STAND AND WATCH
“Heartbreaking moment: Elderly Jewish woman cries as she is ‘harassed and intimidated’ by pro-Palestinian protesters outside community center in London” pic.twitter.com/nA2XRMPIur— Savannah (@Savanna221988) October 29, 2024
One of the leitmotifs of the protests was the call for the complete elimination of Zionism, which, according to participants, supposedly entails a racist ideology. In one video an activist can be heard declaring that “they will fill these streets every day, despite the police presence, until Zionism is destroyed.”
Police work became a separate topic for discussion: as journalists write, the behavior of law enforcement officers caused discontent and they were accused of “deceptive work.” One of the officers detained the man for making a gesture towards the activists, while a similar gesture by the protesters towards the Jews went unheard.
Previously, Cursor reported that it has become dangerous to speak Hebrew in Germany.
