Sky News footage reveals new details of exchange between police and antisemitism campaigner called ‘openly Jewish’
A tense, extended stand-off between police and an antisemitism campaigner where he was called “openly Jewish” and threatened with arrest yards from a pro-Palestinian march was caught on film by Sky News.
The footage gives context to the lengthy and fraught exchanges amid an increasingly volatile atmosphere, as the head of the Metropolitan Police faces calls to resign following the incident.
Scotland Yard has already had to apologise twice after a short video clip emerged on social media, where Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was blocked by an officer close to the protest in the Aldwych area of London on Saturday 13 April.
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Original clip: Jewish man prevented crossing Gaza march
An initial apology by Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist had to be retracted after it suggested the presence of Mr Falter, who was wearing a kippah skull cap, was “provocative”, leading to a rebuke from the Home Office.
In the Sky News footage, the activist insisted he was only trying to cross the road down which the demonstration was passing, but this is disputed by an officer in the new footage, who said Mr Falter had deliberately walked head-on into the crowd and accused him of being “disingenuous” and seeking to “antagonise” the marchers.
Sky News has decided not to identify the officer.
Extended exchange
As emotions continue to run high over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the Sky News footage shows a Met police sergeant explaining to Mr Falter that it was a “big demonstration” and barring his way to the march.
When Mr Falter asked if it was because he is Jewish, the officer nods and says “unfortunately”.
The officer said: “Unfortunately, sir you took it upon yourself to go from the pavement right into the middle of a pro-Palestinian march, which is why I asked you to go away.”
He added: “You are looking to try and antagonise this.”
“So I can already see what your mindset is, sir.”
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Taking issue with this, Mr Falter said: “My mindset? My mindset is I am Jewish in London and I can walk where I want.”
The officer then said: “Please don’t be too disingenuous sir.”
Mr Falter said: “I am not being disingenuous, I can walk wherever the hell I want.
“If I want to walk to that pavement that is what I am going to do and you are going to have to arrest me.”
The officer said: “I would rather not do that.”
Mr Falter said: “I want to get out of here, I want to go across there.”
The officer then said: “I tell you what, come with me, let’s get you out of here. If that’s what you want, come on.
“I am going to get you out over here, you are going to have to do the long way – there are so many people.”
Mr Falter said: “Why can’t I just walk where I want to walk?”
The officer said: “Because there is a big demonstration.”
He added: “I will walk you out and then you can go. You can see all the Israeli flags over there, I will walk you over there.”
Mr Falter said: “I don’t walk with the Israeli flags or any flags.”
The officer replied: “I am not asking you to walk with them but that is the route I will take you out.”
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Asking the officer “to listen to me for a second”, Mr Falter said: “The Metropolitan Police says that these marches are completely safe for Jews, there is no problem whatsoever.
“You are telling me that I cannot walk to the other pavement. That I have to be escorted by you.”
The officer said: “I am telling you that I will help you by escorting you over there and that way you will be completely safe just as we promised, so we are keeping our word.”
Mr Falter said: “I am only safe basically if I have a police escort, is that what you are telling me?”
The officer said: “I am offering it to you sir.
“I have already seen you deliberately leave the pavement and walk against this march. You chose to do that.”
Mr Falter said: “I was trying to get to the other side of the road.”
Amid the ongoing exchange, the noisy march continued in the background with protesters carrying placards and chanting “Palestine will be free.”
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‘Antagonise’
After several more exchanges, Mr Falter asked if it was because he was Jewish he was being stopped from crossing the road as it would “antagonise” the crowd.
The officer said: “You are quite obviously Jewish in appearance, you are outwardly demonstrating your faith.”
He added: “You decided to walk out into the road… and deliberately walk against the flow of people.
“This is quite clearly a pro-Palestinian demonstration. My concern is that your behaviour changed.
“You were at first on the footway, you were not causing any issues. You then decided to move into the road, not to cross it but walk against the flow of people.”
Mr Falter said: “What are you talking about? I was walking across the road.”
The officer then said: “I am sorry, which word didn’t you understand? You were walking against the flow of people.
“That’s why I asked you to move to the pavement.”
When Mr Falter asked if he would be allowed to cross the road if he removed his kippah, the officer said he would not because he was not confident he would not put it back on.
Someone unidentified can then be heard to say: “You are going round in circles now lads.”
Threat of arrest
The campaigner then spoke to another officer who said if he remained he would be arrested.
He was told his presence was “antagonising” a large group of people “and we can’t deal with all of that if they attack you”.
The officer said: “You deliberately tried to walk through the group.
“I watched what you did, you were walking through them in a straight line.”
Pointing away from the march, the officer added: “When you have a route here that offers you no resistance whatsoever it is an antagonistic action to take.”
Mr Falter restated he would like to cross the road as someone could be heard to shout “baby killers”.
He again moved to the pavement, where protesters had gathered with flags and placards, leading a police officer to put a restraining arm around him.
As well as chants of “Palestine will be free” there were also shouts of “shame on you” and “scum”.
The original police sergeant asked Mr Falter: “Where are you looking to go now? You are still heading the wrong way.”
As the situation appeared to grow even more volatile, the officer repeated his offer to escort Mr Falter away as he continued to remonstrate with police arguing they had failed to deal with protesters “behaving badly”.
Pro-Palestinian protesters, some of them masked, chanted at Mr Falter: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The chant is viewed by some pro-Israel supporters as a way to call for the eradication of the Israeli state. Some pro-Palestinian supporters reject this, saying it is simply expressing the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
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The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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