Nearly 4,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the urgent implementation of national guidance on policing in Jewish areas following last month’s controversial anti-Israel demonstration in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.
The new campaign, titled Policing Without Prejudice – Protecting Jewish Communities from Targeted Extremism, was launched on Friday by the We Believe In Israel (WBII) advocacy group, which claimed Essex Police “clearly failed in their duty” to protect the Jewish community.
On the Shabbat of April 19, dozens of demonstrators paraded through residential streets of the coastal suburb, some wearing bloodied fabric representing dead Palestinian children and chanting “globalise the intifada” as Jewish families were returning home from synagogue.
A letter accompanying the petition, which will be sent to a signatories’ local MP once they sign up, calls for “urgent action” to ensure “such scenes are never repeated in our country,” and calls for Cooper to draw upon existing public order law and issue guidance to forces nationwide on the policing of protests in Jewish areas.
It states that police “must distinguish between legitimate protest and the unlawful activities of groups that are nothing more than hate gangs. Failing to do so will do grave damage to the Jewish community and Britain as a whole”.
Furthermore, it claimed: “The location for what was supposed to be a pro-Palestinian march had no significance for its purported purpose.
“The area’s streets are home to several synagogues and hundreds of Jewish families who, it need hardly be added, have no connection to or responsibility for the actions of the State of Israel.”
According to the Daily Telegraph, one organiser of the “Essex March for Palestine” suggested on social media that the residential location was chosen because it was a “very blue and white area”, which some interpreted as a reference to the colours of the Israeli flag.
Former Conservative attorney general Sir Michael Ellis accused Essex Police of a “disastrous failure” in policing standards and “a gold standard example of two-tier policing”.
Urging Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to intervene, he said: “The police allowed this march to go ahead and then prevented members of the local Jewish community from going about their lawful business.”
WBII claims Jewish communities across the UK “are facing growing threats, and far too often the response has been weak or politically compromised. It’s time to demand and accountability and equal protection under the law.
“Join us in calling for stronger policing, fair enforcement, and zero tolerance for extremist intimidation.”
