The Met Police are hunting a woman and several others who held signs that read ‘Hezbollah are not terrorists’ at a pro-Palestine march in London on Saturday.
The march, organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and others, saw thousands of people take to the streets of London to rally against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, nearly a year after it launched a counter-offensive following Hamas’ deadly incursion on October 7 last year.
The Met arrested 16 people at the protest, which convened in Bedford Square for the planned march from Russell Square to Whitehall ahead of events marking a year since Hamas gunmen went across the Israeli border and killed 1,200 people.
One woman, who has not yet been identified, was seen holding a sign that read: ‘Hezbollah are not terrorists.’
‘All Shia are Hezbollah. All Shia around the world are Hezbollah’, she was heard saying, referring to the second-largest branch of Islam.
When asked about Hezbollah’s designation as a terrorist organisation, she said: ‘I think Israel is a terrorist organisation.’
One woman, who has not yet been identified, was seen holding a sign that read: ‘Hezbollah are not terrorists’
Police officers detain a demonstrator during a march to Downing Street to mark one year of the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip
Droves of other protesters waved their flags and banners
The Met today told MailOnline: ‘Efforts are still ongoing to identify this woman and the other women who were with her.’
Inflammatory signs were seen at the march, with messages that read ‘I love Hezbollah’.
One attendee was seen wearing a t-shirt comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Other protestors waved placards saying ‘Zionism causes Polio’ and ‘they will study this like we studied the Holocaust.’
Droves of other protesters waved their flags and banners, with one marcher taking a swipe at the Prime Minister with a sign that read: ‘Starmer is a silly sausage’ – referencing an awkward mishap during his speech about Gaza hostages.
The police were forced to intervene on several occasions to prevent clashes breaking out between pro-Palestinan marchers and a small group of counter-protestors.
One woman was seen holding a sign that read ‘I love Hezbollah’
The Met said it was hunting for the women seen in the video, who have not yet been identified
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march to Downing Street to mark one year of the Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip and to call for a permanent ceasefire as part of an event organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London
Pro-Palestinian supporters were seen chanting ‘ceasefire now’, ‘Palestine will be free’ and ‘hands off Lebanon’, before chanting ‘shame’ to those counter-protestors waving Israeli flags.
The most recent arrest saw police take a man, who appeared to be a wearing a parachute, into custody.
He has been arrested on suspicion of wearing or displaying an article indicating support for a proscribed organisation.
One pro-Palestinian protester was heard calling a black counter-protestor a ‘coconut’, a controversial term which can sometimes be used as a racial slur.
It comes after three women were found guilty in February of a terror offence for displaying images of paragliders at a pro-Palestine march a week after Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people in Israel.
Heba Alhayek, 29, and Pauline Ankunda, 26, attached stock images of paragliders to their backs with tape, while Noimutu Olayinka Taiwo, 27, stuck one to the handle of a placard.
The trio displayed the images on October 14, 2023, just seven days after militants from Hamas used paragliders to enter Israel from Gaza on October 7 before randomly murdering civilians.
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