Brighton Police Chief Accuses Lebanon Demo of anti-Semitism

Chief. Supt. Moore Alleges Lebanon Demonstration was anti-Semitic
Jewish member of Palestine Solidarity Threatens To Sue for Libel

In an article in the Brighton & Hove Argus of 26th August, Brighton Divisional Commander, Chief Supt. Kevin Moore alleged that the organisers of a demonstration on August 19th calling for an end to the bombing of Lebanon were motivated by anti-Semitism. I can only assume the intention of the demonstration in an area where there is a large Jewish population was a deliberate attempt to provoke and incite.’

This was his justification for one of the heaviest policing actions on a demonstration in Brighton. There seemed at one point to be more police than demonstrators and there were at least 4 video/CCTV teams in action, including a tourist bus which was hired by the Police.

Moore’s ‘reason’ for this allegation was the fact that the march had started in Hove’s Palmeira Square. In fact Palmeira Square in Hove is situated in the middle of Brighton & Hove’s large Arab community. It also happened to the Police’s suggestion 4 years ago!

This is another example of Supt. Moore becoming involved in highly contentious political issues. Who gave him the right to attribute to the organisers of the demonstrations an anti-Semitic motive. People on the demonstration, including those who were Jewish, were motivated solely by the horrific crimes Israel committed in Lebanon and the racism towards Arabs that this showed. Moore used an incident where a motorist described as a ‘half-Jewish doorman’ shouted ‘terrorist’ at the nearest Arab demonstrator and became involved in a verbal altercation with him. If anything it was the motorist who was guilty of a racial abuse for assuming that all Arabs are terrorists.

Ironically the only Jewish person who was assaulted on the march of August 19th was myself and that was at the hands of Moore’s officers. This is the subject of legal proceedings. Palmeira Square in Hove has historically been the starting place of demonstrations over Palestine and has nothing whatsoever to do with the presence or otherwise of Jewish people in the area. Jewish people live in all areas of Brighton and Hove.

Jewish people have in their hundreds demonstrated in Brighton, London, Edinburgh and elsewhere against the recent carnage in Lebanon. To make accusations of anti-Semitism demonstrates the politicisation of Sussex Police. Supt. Moore was responsible for the detention of Walter Wolfgang on suspicion of ‘terrorism’ at last October’s Labour Party Conference and he has been responsible for the legal fiasco at EDO-MBM, also involving demonstrators. Supt. Moore seems to have a problem with the right to protest and demonstrate in a democratic society. If he is so concerned by racism he might care to reopen the investigation into the murder of Jay Abatan since it was his own force’s negligence which led to the murderers not being caught.

I also sent Moore notice that I would issue proceedings for defamation. As a result he rang me up and we had an interesting conversation. In order to ensure that I wasn’t misquoted I taped the conversation and people are welcome to listen to an example of Blair’s new policing in action. A racist incident is one that the victim perceives as such, even if there is no evidence. So a resident who says a march is anti-Semitic must be taken at her word. Orwell eat your heart out!!

Tony Greenstein