\n<\/p>\n
Police in the United Kingdom have made their first arrests since announcing their intent to crack down on people making public calls to \u201cglobalise the Intifada\u201d after Australia\u2019s Bondi Beach attack, speciously linking largely peaceful protests against Israel\u2019s genocidal war with a deadly targeting of a Jewish festival.<\/p>\n
London\u2019s Metropolitan Police posted on X late on Wednesday that it had made four arrests at pro-Palestinian protests held outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster, \u201call involving the alleged shouting or chanting of slogans involving calls for intifada\u201d.<\/p>\n
The arrests were made at a demonstration that had been called in support of eight imprisoned hunger strikers<\/span>, whose lives are in peril. They were jailed over connections to the Palestine Action group, just hours after the Metropolitan (Met) and Greater Manchester Police (GMT) said they would be \u201cmore assertive\u201d in policing pro-Palestine protests to counter alleged anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n UK Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips backed the Met\u2019s action. \u201cI cannot think of any interpretation other than that [it] is inciting people to violence, which has the terrible consequences,\u201d she was cited as saying by The Times of London.<\/p>\n But Ben Jamal, from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, pointed out in a statement that the Arabic word \u201cintifada\u201d means \u201cshaking off or uprising against injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n In the Palestinian context, the word is understood to mean civil uprising against military occupation and illegal settlement expansion, with key historical instances in 1987-93<\/span> and 2000-05<\/span>, drawing brutal responses from Israel that left thousands of people dead.<\/p>\n Jamal criticised the lack of consultation over the new police stance, saying on X that \u201cforces across the political establishment\u201d were using the \u201cgrotesque racist violence on Bondi beach\u201d to delegitimise any protest against \u201copen genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n The police crackdown follows father-and-son gunmen killing 15 people Sunday at a Hanukkah festival on the Sydney beach and an October attack on a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.<\/p>\n \u201cViolent acts have taken place, the context has changed \u2013 words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests,\u201d said the commanders of the Met and GMP in a joint statement.<\/p>\n Jewish groups welcomed the announcement, with the UK\u2019s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis calling it \u201can important step towards challenging the hateful rhetoric we have seen on our streets, which has inspired acts of violence and terror\u201d.<\/p>\n Groups like the Community Security Trust (CST), which works to provide security to protect British Jews, say anti-Semitic incidents <\/span>have risen in the UK.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Islamophobia and attacks against Muslims in the UK<\/span>, prompted by racist rhetoric in mainstream politics on the right of the political spectrum, most prevalently but not only by Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform party and its supporters, have soared in recent years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n