Good morning. When the story first emerged last Friday, it looked like an uncomplicated example of antisemitism: a man wearing a kippah going for his usual walk in London after synagogue and happening to bump into a pro-Palestine march, being told by a police officer that because he was “quite openly Jewish”, he could not cross the road.
Gideon Falter, the man in the video, was threatened with arrest. He called for the resignation of the Met chief, Mark Rowley – and drew support from former home secretary Suella Braverman, among others. The incident seemed to prove that whenever the marches are happening, Jewish people who feel intimidated can’t even trust the police to be on their side. A video of the incident made front page news – and it has been viewed more than 3m times.
