London: Man arrested for shouting ‘racist abuse’ at pro-Palestine protest | UK News
A man was arrested for shouting racist abuse during a a pro-Palestine march in central London calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Footage shared on Twitter shows him waving a black and white flag and chanting outside Whitehall on Saturday.
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Another protester in a grey hoodie can be seen holding up a megaphone next to him and appeared to be bellowing ‘Hamas’.
The 35-second clip has been watched by more than 4.2 million people, with many calling for the first man’s arrest.
The Metropolitan Police finally confirmed last night he was detained on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
‘Yesterday this man was filmed shouting racist abuse in Whitehall,’ the force said in a statement.
‘He is in custody having been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.’
An estimated 100,000 people attended the pro-Palestine demonstration, with the procession travelling from Marble Arch to Whitehall and Parliament Square.
Most held up placards reading ‘Free Palestine’ and chanted ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free
Others unfurled giant Palestinian flags and let off green and red smoke flares, and fireworks.
Metro.co.uk could not independently verify what the flag seen in the footage was, but the Met has warned against propaganda being spread about Isis flags spotted at the event.
Other pictures shared online showed similar black and white flags, but police said they are the ‘shahada’ which is a declaration of faith in Islam.
Sharing a screenshot of a now deleted tweet that accused protesters of holding ‘Jihadist flags’ and chanting in support of genocide, the force warned: ‘While this tweet has been deleted, the claim about flags is still being shared.
‘The flags in the lower left photo are not those of Isis. They are the “shahada” which is a declaration of faith in Islam.
‘Isis flags may appear similar but are not the same. We have specialist officers with knowledge of flags working on this operation to assist with these assessments.
‘We know the original poster received abuse following our earlier tweet. This is unacceptable.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Met for a comment on the arrest of the man.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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