London Police Chief Criticized for Claiming Pro-Palestine March Deliberately Targeted Synagogue
Middle East Eye
A coalition of advocacy groups has demanded London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley retract his statement that pro-Palestine protest organizers intentionally included a synagogue on the march route. The groups described his remarks as “incomprehensible and defamatory.”
A coalition of advocacy groups has called on Mark Rowley, head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, to retract his claim that pro-Palestine protest organizers repeatedly intended to include Jewish synagogues on the planned march route in London.
The groups include Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition and Palestine Forum of Britain.
Their reaction came after Rowley made comments in The Times. He said: “Their initial proposal for the route, for the march, involved going past a synagogue. Every time we blocked that, we set conditions.”
Rowley continued: “That it appeared as a deliberate act by the organizers, I think sends a message… it feels anti-Semitic. That may be a fair or unfair inference, but that is the message it sends.”
The advocacy groups said Rowley’s statements were “incomprehensible and defamatory.”
