Legal complaint filed by Palestine activists against Met Police chief over synagogue remarks

Legal complaint filed by Palestine activists against Met Police chief over synagogue remarks Submitted by MEE staff on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 15:01 Legal letter filed after Mark Rowley accused pro-Palestine protest organisers of intending to march past synagogues Pro-Palestinian supporters hold placards and wave flags on Downing Street in central London on 19 July 2025 (Carlos Jasso/AFP) Off A coalition of campaign groups has made a formal complaint against the head of London’s Metropolitan Police for suggesting that protest organisers repeatedly intended to include synagogues on their planned demonstration routes in London. In recent interviews with The Times and ITV News, Mark Rowley, the police commissioner, has suggested that pro-Palestine demonstration organisers have sought to march past synagogues.  “The fact that features as the organisers’ intent, I think that sends a message … that feels like antisemitism,” he told The Times.  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.”  On Wednesday, Hodge Jones & Allen solicitors wrote to the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime on behalf of its client, the Palestine Coalition. The coalition is made up of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Palestinian Forum of Britain, the Stop the War Coalition, Friends of Al-Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.  Metropolitan Police faces fresh questions over crackdown on pro-Palestine protest Read More » The complaint stated that the similarity of Rowley’s two interviews demonstrated that his comments were not inadvertent, they “were intentional, and made to undermine and stigmatise the marches that our Client has been involved in organising for many years”.  It said that the marches since October 2023 were to protest against Israeli violations of international law against Palestinians and British complicity in such acts.  The complaint referenced expectations for the conduct of the commissioner as set out in the police conduct regulations of 2020, which requires the chief to act with honesty and integrity, treat people with respect and courtesy, not abuse authority, act with fairness and impartiality and not undermine public confidence in the police.  “The Commissioner’s comments were in breach of those standards,” the complaint alleges.  It said that it was factually incorrect to suggest that its client had set out with intent to march near synagogues as an objective.  'Racially discriminatory' Some of the planned marches had gone past major landmarks, and been in the vicinity of synagogues and other places of worship, the complaint said, “but they have never deliberately been routed past or near such synagogues, as suggested”.  It said that all routes had been agreed with the Metropolitan Police in advance.  On occasion, the solicitors said, the police imposed conditions on the organisers to amend routes to be further away from synagogues or tube stations that some worshippers may use.  The coalition agreed to such amendments, whilst not accepting the assertion that the protests pose any threat to the synagogues.  “Our client accepted these amendments to their route because it has never been their intention to march close to a synagogue as an objective,” the complaint said.  UK Muslim groups slam government for ‘scapegoating’ Gaza anti-genocide protests as antisemitism Read More » “At no point during any negotiations has it been suggested that Metropolitan police officers believed that the objective of the march itself was to ensure that they went past a synagogue.” The complaint stated that the commissioner had made misleading remarks not backed up by evidence, and abused his power.  “He has also acted in a racially discriminatory way in inferring that protests against fundamental violations of international law by Israel and by Britain are antisemitic,” it added.  It further noted that for an upcoming march on 16 May to mark Nakba Day, the coalition’s route had been restricted, whilst the Metropolitan Police had given space for a far-right march led by Tommy Robinson in central London.  “In view of the Commissioner’s conduct, we would ask that the comments are immediately retracted and a full apology is made to our client,” the complaint concludes.  Last week, the same groups criticised attempts by politicians and the media to smear the demonstrations, as well as suggestions that they could be banned.  A 45-year-old Somali-born British national was arrested on Wednesday afternoon after the stabbing of two Jewish men, aged 34 and 76, in Golders Green, a neighbourhood of northwest London with a large Jewish population, and an earlier stabbing of a Muslim man, Ishmail Hussein, in south London.  Politicians, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, have used the Golders Green attacks to condemn pro-Palestine marches and call for their curtailment. In an interview with the BBC's Today programme on Saturday, Starmer said the language used on marches should be policed and suggested that there could be a case for banning marches altogether.  UK Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0