Palestine Coalition issues formal complaint against Met police commissioner

The Palestine Coalition has commenced a formal complaint with the London mayor’s office over comments by Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley. In interviews with the Times and ITV on 1 May, commissioner Rowley asserted that the Coalition organisers have sought to route marches for Palestinian rights past synagogues.

In the Times he said:

The fact that features as the organisers’ intent, I think that sends a message … that feels like antisemitism.

On ITV he said:

They set out with an intent to march near synagogues etc and every single time that we put conditions on to prevent that.

The Palestine Coalition has condemned his remarks. It wrote to the Commissioner on 4 May calling on him to retract these false and inflammatory statements. The letter said:

The truth is that at no point have we ever requested to ‘walk by’ a synagogue on any of our marches. We have no interest in doing so. Police recordings of our meetings with you will confirm this…It is completely unacceptable for a senior public official to make these false claims and accusations, which can only raise the level of tension in the current situation.

Complaint accuses commissioner of racial discrimination

In the complaint to the Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime, the Coalition organisers say the commissioner’s comments were intentional, not inadvertent, and made to undermine and stigmatise the Palestine marches.

They say he has contravened the standards of professional behaviour of his office by not acting with honesty or integrity and has abused his powers and acted in a manner which undermines public confidence in the police.

He has also acted in a racially discriminatory way in inferring that protests against fundamental violations of international law by Israel and by the UK are antisemitic. The Coalition is demanding a retraction by the commissioner and a full apology.

The complaint comes ahead of the annual Nakba Day March, held this year on Saturday 16 May, which commemorates the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The demonstration will call for an end to UK support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, and will also protest against the far-right march led by Tommy Robinson, happening on the same day.

The Met police have given the political centre of London to the demonstration by the “Unite the Kingdom” group, whilst continuing to restrict the options for the Nakba Day demonstration and imposing stifling conditions under the Public Order Act.

Featured image via the Canary