January 31, 2024, 17:36
Hamas is a proscribed organization.
Photo: Alamy
Police have arrested a teenager on suspicion of soliciting support for Hamas following a pro-Palestinian protest in north London.
Officers arrested a 19-year-old woman from central London in the early hours of Wednesday morning and searched her address.
She was detained on suspicion of soliciting support for a prohibited organization, in contravention of section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and remains in custody at a police station.
Police believe the incident occurred during a demonstration in Camden on October 19th.
“This arrest demonstrates the Metropolitan Police Department’s continued commitment to pursuing charges of supporting a terrorist group to the fullest extent of the law,” the force said in a statement.
This comes after police were asked to step up crackdowns on people who made pro-terrorism statements during demonstrations.
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Concerns have been raised about chants such as “From the River to the Sea” that many interpret as a call for genocide against Israelis.
During protests across the UK, some demonstrators called for holy war.
Demonstrations began in earnest after the October 7 attack, when Israel launched an assault on Gaza aimed at crushing Hamas.
But there were already supporters of Hamas’s massacre, which resulted in the largest single-day loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, on the streets of Western cities.
Sir Mark Rowley, director of the Met, previously said staff could not “impose good taste and decency”.