Met Police officer sparks FURY after failing to admit Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation
The Campaign Against Antisemitism posted the "newly-emerged, jaw-dropping" video of the officers online
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A Met Police officer has sparked fury after failing to admit Hezbollah was a terrorist organisation at a pro-Palestinian protest in central London.
When a bystander alerted the policemen that Hezbollah was a proscribed terrorist group, an officer responded: "Your opinion is your opinion."
Another officer admitted that he "didn't take a lot of political interest" and claimed he was not allowed to have political interests, after he confused the leader of Lebanon with the leader of Hezbollah.
The vigil was being held in Trafalgar Square for Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, whose death was confirmed at the end of September.
Another officer admitted that he "didn't take a lot of political interest" as he mixed up the leader of Lebanon and the Hezbollah chief
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The Campaign Against Antisemitism posted the "newly-emerged, jaw-dropping" video of the officers online.
The user wrote: "With the head of MI5 warning about the significant risk posed to the UK by Iranian-backed groups, it has never been more urgent that police understand the very real threat that support for Hezbollah and other Islamist terror groups poses to us all."
"How is the Metropolitan Police supposed to protect us when they don’t actually educate their officers on the law?"
The campaign account said that they had posted this video to demonstrate the nature of the training and priorities of the Met Police, rather than to launch individual attacks on the officers captured on camera.
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The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "The proscribed status of Hezbollah, Hamas and other groups is included in the briefings given to the officers deployed to police related events, but we recognise this video shows we need to do more to make sure the details of those briefings are fully understood."
Additionally, the Met clarified that the protest had been promoted as a "vigil for Lebanon" and not for the former Hezbollah leader, but said that campaigners were protesting against the war in Gaza.
The statement assured that they limited attendance and officers were deployed across the area to identify offences, which includes demonstrating support for proscribed organisations.
However, Metropolitan Police "understood" why the online video had raised concerns.
The Met clarified that the protest had been promoted as a "vigil for Lebanon" and not for the former Hezbollah leader, but said that campaigners were protesting against the war in Gaza
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The Campaign Against Antisemitism also stated that anti-Israel demonstrators have "freely" shown support for Hezbollah.
Over the weekend, a woman was reported to have shouted "we love Hamas" during a pro-Palestinian protest in London, where a "number of offences" occurred, according to the police.
The Met has confirmed that they arrested 17 people during the protests in the capital on October 5.
In a poll conducted by Ipsos Mori published at the start of October, 73 per cent of Britons support an "immediate unconditional ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas, while 60 per cent believe that this is unlikely to occur by the end of the year.