Gideon Falter, the man at the centre of the row about being branded “openly Jewish” by a police officer has called for Met Chief Sir Mark Rowley to be sacked over the force’s handling of pro-Palestine marches in London.
This comes as theMet Police were forced to apologise after an officer told Falter, who is an anti semitism charity leader, that he looked "openly Jewish" and threatened him with arrest for supposedly threatening to make the tensions at a pro-Palestine march boil over.
Falter was wearing a kippah skull cap when he was stopped in the Aldwych area of London on Saturday.
He was told by police his presence was causing a "breach of peace", in a video posted online.
Gideon Falter was accused of being "openly Jewish" at a pro-Palestine march
GB News
Gideon Falter told GB News: “So now we've got a situation where, very regrettably, we are seeing that the Met commissioner has failed completely and change has to come from the top.
“What I'd really like the Home Secretary to be saying to the commissioner today is resign or you're fired.
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“I don't know what's going to happen in this meeting. But that's really the kind of message that we need because I think for months now also, we've seen the Home Secretary James cleverly and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, the two of them are supposed to hold the commissioner to account and they've been practically absent.
“They've done precious little, and they've created a vacuum in which this has been allowed to go on and on and on until we get to the kind of situation which I saw when I was in the march last Saturday.”
In a discussion with Tom Harwood and Emma Webb, he denied that he was trying to antagonise marchers: “It was actually towards the beginning of march, the march was thickening and coming closer and I wanted to sort of get across and get away before all of that happened.
“And you have to make a decision, sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself the question, am I going to run away [because] I'm Jewish, or am I going to say no, I've got as much right as all the other people who were crossing the road?
Chief executive Gideon Falter speaking to a Metropolitan Police during a pro-Palestine march in LondonCampaign Against Antisemitism/PA Wire“It was a Saturday in London, lots of people were going in all sorts of different directions.
"People were crossing the road, and I just thought, why should I because I'm visibly Jewish, why should I have to run away from that?
“Why should I have to try and find some other way through London?
"It’s completely outrageous to say that that's something that Jews should do and no one else should have to.”
Gideon Falter spoke to GB News
GB News
The first apology from the Met was slammed as "victim blaming" and so they were forced to make a second apology.
The second statement read: "We have reflected on the strength of the response to our previous statement.
"In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest, we caused further offence. This was never our intention... and we apologise. Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in this city.
"Our commitment to protecting the public extends to all communities across London. It's important that our public statements reflect that more clearly than they did today."