A Brighton pro-Palestine campaigner has been arrested for making allegedly racist comments while speaking at an anti-Israel rally in London.
Tony Greenstein has blogged about his arrest last Friday at the demo outside the home of the Israeli ambassador in Swiss Cottage.
He says the comments he was arrested for involved a comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany.
He has now launched a crowdfunder which has already raised more than £6,000 to “stop the police persecuting Palestinian Solidarity Activists”.
It says he will be pleading not guilty if charged, and if he’s not, he will bring a civil suit against the Metropolitan Police for “false and malicious imprisonment” while being held in police cells.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “A 70-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a committing a racially aggravated public order offence during a protest in Swiss Cottage on 4 October.
“He was taken into police custody and has been bailed pending further enquiries to a date in early December.
“Enquiries into the circumstances continue.”
Mr Greenstein has also posted the form he was given by police when he was released on police bail.
It imposes two conditions – one, not to enter Camden (the London Borough of Camden includes Swiss Cottage) or to attend any pro-Palestine protests in London.
Mr Greenstein says he will be seeking to have the condition not to attend any pro-Palestine protests in London removed as it is against Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Now where do we know that name from ?
Once a fruitcake – always a fruitcake