UK police crack down on hate after Bondi massacre
London: British police have toughened their stance on antisemitism following allegations that some people in the UK welcomed the killing of Australian Jews in the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Manchester Chief Constable Stephen Watson said he was aware of reports that some people in his hometown were celebrating the murders. He condemned the “sickening” response and promised to tighten measures against hate speech.
But apparent video of an event in Manchester purportedly showing Muslim men applauding the Bondi attack this week contained renamed old footage from June that was unrelated to the Australian atrocity.
The video, which went viral on social media over the past few days with the false claim that it showed pro-Palestinian activists, highlighted the difficulty police have in distinguishing genuine threats from misinformation.
Manchester Police confirmed to this imprint that the video showed an earlier protest unrelated to Bondi, while fact-checking units at Reuters and Agence France-Presse found the video showed an event in Manchester on June 8.
Manchester, which has the UK’s largest Jewish population outside London, has been on high alert since the terrorist attack on the Heaton Park synagogue on October 2.
Manchester attacker Jihad Al-Shamie was born in Syria and sought refuge in England. He killed one person with a knife and injured several people before being shot dead at the scene. Another person died from a police bullet while trying to keep the door of the synagogue closed to protect those inside.
Watson, the Manchester area’s most senior police officer, outlined concerns about the response to the Bondi attack but did not name specific cases.
“I know I have received reports of people celebrating the Bondi shooting in Manchester. [are] it’s just sickeningly unpleasant,” he told the Policy Xchange think tank on Wednesday.
“It seems to me that we need to get to the bottom of this, we need to get behind this, because there are things that are legal that are unacceptable. And things that cannot be tolerated can become illegal over time.”
British police chiefs, who have increased the number of patrols due to increasing threats and taken a more assertive stance against hate speech, have cited Bondi as a new factor legitimizing the arrest of protesters.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, who is responsible for much of London, issued a joint statement with the Manchester chief commissioner, citing slogans such as “globalise the intifada” as grounds for the arrest.
Two police chiefs said, “There have been acts of violence, the context has changed, words have meaning and consequences. We will act decisively and make arrests.”
Crown prosecutors have in the past found that “globalizing the intifada” was not hate speech, even though uprisings among Palestinians, particularly the second intifada after 2000, included suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.
Rowley and Watson said the situation has changed and that many of the phrases used by protesters have created fear in Jewish communities.
“Now in the context of the increased threat, we will recalibrate to be more assertive,” they said.
The International Justice Center for Palestinians condemned the police statement and argued that “intifada” meant an uprising.
“What will be the next pro-Palestinian slogan to be criminalized?” the center said.
“This sets a dangerous precedent for the erosion of freedom of expression in the UK. It marks another alarming decline in the suppression of protests in support of Palestinian rights.”
The Metropolitan Police detained two men for racially aggravated public order offenses after they allegedly called for an intifada at a protest in central London on Thursday.
Concerns about Britain’s response to the Bondi terror made headlines in the UK. Times I am reporting the allegations on Friday. However, Manchester police determined that the video on social media was old footage.
“We are not aware of any celebratory events at GM in response to this attack,” a police spokesman told this imprint, using the acronym for Greater Manchester.
A verification by Reuters revealed that the video purporting to show a pro-Palestinian group celebrating the mass murder in Bondi was previously released on June 8, with activists saying it showed a demonstration in Manchester the day before.
In an Agence France-Presse news check, the news agency said a similar false claim was made about a demonstration in Pakistan that allegedly welcomed the Bondi attack.
“The videos predate the attack and depict a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Manchester in June and a fireworks display in Karachi following the Hamas attack on Israel,” the statement said.
Watson argued that tougher measures against hate speech were justified because of the way Jewish communities were targeted.
“I guess this [a] There is a very important point to consider: Jewish children Only In our country, children who go to school behind large fences every day are protected by disabled people. [high-vis] jackets and where there are routine police patrols in and around those areas,” he said.
“Our Jewish communities endure a lifestyle that no one else in our country has to endure today.
“I think this is a very important thing, there is something very important in making this happen.
“And as the dynamic continues to change, I think we all need to re-examine ourselves about whether what we are doing continues to be enough.”
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