Two arrested in London for ‘globalise the intifada’ chant

Two people have been arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in London after shouting “slogans involving calls for intifada”.

- TARA COBHAM

The Metropolitan Police said the pair were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences outside the Ministry of Justice building in Westminster last night. A third person was arrested for obstructing officers as they made the first two arrests for chanting at the demonstration, which was estimated to have drawn a crowd of around 100 people.

The force later confirmed two further arrests for public order offences, one of which was racially aggravated, bringing the total arrested to five.

The arrests mark a change in approach from both the Met and Greater Manchester Police, who announced hours earlier that anyone chanting controversial slogans such as “globalise the intifada” would face arrest because the “context has changed” in the wake of the Bondi Beach and Manchester synagogue terror attacks.

It is alleged that father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram opened fire on crowds of more than 1,000 people as they celebrated Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday. Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police, while Naveed, 24, woke from a coma on Tuesday and was charged with a raft of offences, including 15 counts of murder and committing a terrorist attack.