Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why did the Met arrest a Jewish man for mocking Hezbollah?

Pro Israeli counter protestors gather in London (Credit: Getty images)

It’s the 21st century and Jews are being arrested for making fun of fascists. The Telegraph has revealed that last September a Jewish protester was nabbed and detained by cops in London for the speech crime of mocking the then leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah.

The man – who wishes to remain anonymous, which is wise in these febrile, anti-Semitic times — was holding a placard featuring a cartoon of Nasrallah with a pager and the words ‘beep, beep, beep’. It was clearly a reference to Israel’s pagers operation against Hezbollah’s top dogs, which some beautifully call ‘Operation Grim Beeper’. Nasrallah was alive at the time this fella held aloft his blasphemous banner, but it’s obvious what the guy was saying: tick tock, Hasan, your time is coming. 

Worst of all, there’s the galling fact that a Jew was interrogated for mocking Jew haters

I hope I don’t get a knock on the door from the Met for saying this, but that is one funny placard.

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Brendan O’Neill
Written by
Brendan O’Neill

Brendan O’Neill is Spiked's chief politics writer. His new book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, is out now.

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