Is it now a crime to make fun of Hezbollah terrorists?

The recent arrest of a Jewish man for holding a placard mocking Hezbollah’s now deceased leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has triggered outrage. It has also raised serious questions about the Metropolitan Police’s approach to policing protests in London, particularly those involving extremist or anti-Semitic elements.

According to the Telegraph, the man was arrested and charged at a demonstration in Swiss Cottage, north-west London, in September. His ‘crime’ was to be in possession of a sign depicting Nasrallah alongside text that read ‘beep, beep, beep’ – a reference to an Israeli operation days earlier, where dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed through the remote detonation of pagers. The man was charged with ‘causing racially or religiously motivated harassment’. The charges were later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to insufficient evidence and the Met have issued an apology.

Hezbollah is not a race or a religion, but rather a designated terrorist organisation under UK law. Criticising its leaders cannot reasonably be considered ‘hate speech’ – some might, in fact, consider it a civic responsibility. Yet the Met decided to arrest a man for doing precisely this. Understandably, the question many are now asking is: whose side are they on?