West Midlands Police has sparked a fresh controversy by refusing to commit to arresting protesters who chant the slogan 'globalise the intifada', a phrase many view as a call for violence against Jewish people. This decision comes just weeks after the same force was forced to apologise for using false information to ban fans of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv from attending a match against Aston Villa in Birmingham.
Diverging Approaches to Protest Chants
The stance of West Midlands Police (WMP) puts it at odds with the country's two largest police forces. The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) both announced this week that they would arrest activists using the phrase, citing a changed context following recent terror attacks. These include the Bondi Beach massacre in Sydney, where 15 people were killed at a Hannukah event, and a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur.
In London on Wednesday, police arrested two individuals for racially aggravated public order offences after they allegedly shouted slogans involving calls for intifada at a pro-Palestinian protest. WMP, however, has declined to follow this lead. A force spokesperson stated that each incident would be judged on a case-by-case basis, adding they would take positive action, which could include arrests, if actions appeared intended to incite violence, racial hatred, or cause harassment, alarm, and distress.
Mounting Pressure Over Previous Ban
The force is already under intense scrutiny for its handling of the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban ahead of the Europa Conference League match at Villa Park in November. Chief Constable Mike O'Hara was forced to apologise to Birmingham's Jewish community after falsely claiming the force had consulted them over the decision. It later emerged that an intelligence report justifying the ban referenced a non-existent match against West Ham and vastly inflated the number of police officers deployed during a previous game in Amsterdam.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticised WMP's latest position, urging them to follow the Met and GMP in making clear that chants for jihad and intifada are calls for violence and will lead to arrest. He stated the force should now be doing everything possible to restore confidence in its ability to protect the Jewish community, especially with antisemitism on the rise.
Campaigners Decry 'Farce' and Lack of Leadership
Antisemitism campaigners have labelled WMP's decision a 'farce'. A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was 'particularly galling' that the force, still in the national spotlight over the Aston Villa fiasco, had not committed to the new policy. They criticised a 'total absence of leadership in British policing', where someone could be arrested for an act in one county but do the same with impunity in another.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews welcomed the intervention by the Met and GMP, stating they had long warned that such chants incite violence. Conversely, Ben Jamal, director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, claimed the arrest policy was 'another low in the political repression of protest for Palestinian rights'.
While Lincolnshire Police have also committed to arresting anyone using the phrase, other forces like Cambridgeshire Constabulary have joined WMP in saying they will assess cases individually, highlighting a fragmented national approach to policing protest slogans in the wake of escalating community tensions.
