Fury as Met chief Mark Rowley compares pro-Israel protesters to 'stupid' football fans after they 'waved Israeli flag' at Palestine Action demo
Sir Mark Rowley has compared two pro-Israel protesters to 'stupid' football fans after the waved an Israeli flag at a Palestine Action rally.
The Met chief accused the Jewish counter-protesters of trying to 'create an incident' when they walked into the crowd in Trafalgar Square with a megaphone and flag.
Trainee barrister Isaac Grand, 22, and another man, who did not want to be named, had to be bundled onto a nearby double-decker bus by officers.
The duo accused Scotland Yard of 'two-tier policing', with a video showing an officer telling them they were 'winding the crowd up' and creating a breach of peace by waving an Israeli flag.
But Sir Mark has hit back and compared them to a Tottenham Hotspur fan unfurling a club flag in the midst of a crowd of Arsenal supporters.
He today told LBC's Nick Ferrari the pair were being 'disingenuous' with what they were saying.
'They chose to walk into the middle of the Palestine Action protest, and then reveal the Israeli flags,' Sir Mark said.
'Just as if you were a Spurs fan and walked into a middle of a bunch of Arsenal fans, on a heated local derby, and then started waving Spurs flags, the police would hoick you out of there and say 'don't be so damn stupid, you are going to start a fight'.
'And they would take them out for their own protection. It's no different to that whatsoever. It's not about two-tier policing.
'If they'd wanted to protest on the other side of the road and express their view, the officers would have facilitated that.
'But if you want to walk into the middle of something to try and create an incident, then of course we're going to try and protect you from yourselves and stop an incident growing.
'And we would do the exactly the same in the opposite. If you had a pro-Israel protest going on and a couple of Palestinian supporters walked into the middle of it and waved flags, we'd hoick them out of it as well.'
Sir Mark went on to praise officers for acting with 'great common sense and pragmatism'.
Mr Grand today doubled down on his comments as he phoned LBC to issue a response to Sir Mark's accusation they were 'disingenuous'.
He argued they had unfurled their Israeli flag to 'prove these people can't tolerate a second opinion'.
Mr Grand's pal then blared through a megaphone 'Jihadists aren't welcome here', before the duo were terrifyingly soon surrounded by 40 Palestine Action protesters.
'We are constantly harassed and somebody tries to steal our flag from us, we are assaulted at several points,' he said.
'The police watched and did absolutely nothing. About two minutes in as I'm screaming for the police to intervene in this situation, they eventually circle around us and grab us onto a bus where we are essentially detained because we are not allowed to leave.
'Whilst on the bus, we are threatened with a public order offence. I said, "how are you threatening us with a public order offence when we haven't been threatening in any such way?'
He went on to admit 'it was certainly a stupid thing to do, I don't refute that' but argued: 'It is shocking to me that even though we were not acting disorderly, even though we were not acting in any way aggressive, we were the ones that were threatened with the public order offence.'
It comes as footage, published by The Telegraph, showed an officer telling Mr Grand he was creating a breach of the peace.
The Met police officer is heard saying: 'You are quite within your right to protest but I'm not going to let two rival groups clash.
'The two of you against 500 of them. If it was a pro-Israel group and there were two Palestine guys running through with a Palestine flag, I would do exactly the same thing.'
A Met Police spokesman said: 'This was a challenging protest, which saw 13 arrests and a number of officers assaulted.
'Protesters surrounded police officers on multiple occasions, and when two counter-protesters starte d waving an Israeli flag and shouting on a megaphone, they surrounded them too.
'Officers intervened to protect the two men. They were held on an out of service bus for their own safety and not because they had committed a crime. When it was safe to do so, officers escorted them out of the area.
'As the officer explained at the time, the men had every right to protest, but it was unwise for two people to walk into a crowd of 500 people with opposing views and not expect a confrontation to follow.
'Had the situation been reversed with 500 pro-Israel supporters and two pro-Palestinian, the officers would have done the same thing.'
Hundreds of protesters had gathered at Trafalgar Square on Monday in response to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's plan to add the group to the government's list of proscribed terrorist organisations.
The decision came after members last week broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military planes and other 'violent' action - including one incident where two police officers were assaulted with a sledgehammer.
Elsewhere at the protest, members of Palestine Action were seen clashing with police.
Officers were forced to drag activists out of the crowds after they were seen scuffling with officers and shouting up close into their faces, with some wearing black face coverings or Palestinian keffiyehs.
This prompted protesters to respond by pushing back, throwing water and chanting at police.
The Met had been forced to deploy more than 100 officers to the rally which started at midday but quickly spilled into chaotic scenes.
Officers received a barrage of verbal abuse from the crowds, with some shouting 'f*** you' and 'who do you serve?'. Other chants include 'oink oink piggy, we're going to make your lives s****y'.
One demonstrator said: 'We will cause mayhem today. We're here to break and smash the system. The police will get it. We don't care.'
Scotland Yard said the protest had to be finished by 3pm but demonstrators have vowed to stay 'well beyond'.
One said: 'They'll have to arrest us to get rid of us. We're not leaving. This is just the start.'
However, three hours after the disorder exploded onto the capital's streets, the protest had ended.
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