British Home Secretary Suella Braverman submitted a proposal to the police to criminalize the raising of Palestinian flags and chants supporting Arab countries at demonstrations in the future.
In a letter to police, Suella Braverman urged the suppression of any attempts to use flags, songs or swastikas to harass or intimidate members of the Jewish community.
She said in her speech that criminalization shouldn’t only include chants in support of the Palestinian Hamas movement, but should extend to other Arab groups and countries.
“It’s not only the symbols and explicit chants supporting Hamas that are causing concern… I would encourage the police to consider whether chants such as From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, should be understood as an expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world, and whether its use in certain contexts might amount to aggravated racism… Under Article 5 of the Public Order,” Suella Braverman wrote in her letter.
She added, “Behaviors that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example waving the Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate as is the case when they are intended to glorify terrorist acts”.
British law stipulates the independence of the police, which means that the ministers’ proposals aren’t binding, but they can be discussed and adopted according to the desire of the police.
