An east London borough whose mayor was once barred from public office for corruption has been accused of ‘criminal offences’ because of its failure to take down Palestinian flags.
Pro-Israel legal campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) says displays of Palestine flags and pro-Gazan posters and stickers in Tower Hamlets will ‘intimidate Jewish people and may encourage violence against them’.
It has called on the borough, whose elected mayor is Lutfur Rahman, to remove the displays of Palestinian support in case their ‘inflammatory content’ constitutes a criminal offence, for which it says the council would ultimately be responsible.
Tower Hamlets, which has the largest Muslim population of any local authority area in the UK at 39.9 per cent as of the 2021 census, says it is not aware of any criminal offences being committed through the displaying of Palestinian flags.
Its mayor, Mr Rahman, was re-elected in 2022, seven years after he was forced to stand down following a civil case that found him personally guilty of corrupt and illegal practices in the lead up to the election.
Pro-Palestine protesters stage a rally outside the Labour Party office in Tower Hamlets last November
Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman, who was re-elected in 2022 after serving a five-year ban on running for office after he was found guilty of corruption
One of the ‘inflammatory’ posters that UK Lawyers for Israel claims is breaking the law – and by extension, sees Tower Hamlets Council held liable
Police at the latest pro-Palestine rally in London, which took place on Saturday around Westminster
He was banned from holding office for five years, a measure that has now lapsed.
UKLFI said it has reported the council to the Metropolitan Police over its failure to act on what it claimed were incendiary materials throughout its borough.
Some of the signs included accusations that Israel was committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza and calls for ‘victory to the intifada’, the Arabic word for an uprising.
The Metropolitan Police has made arrests during pro-Palestine protests in Central London over a number of alleged declarations of support for Hamas, which is a proscribed terror group and therefore illegal to support.
Jonathan Turner, chief executive, said in a letter to the authority that under the Town and Country Planning Act, it would be held liable for any criminal offences committed through the displaying of the materials.
He did not state which offences, if any, were being committed through the displaying of the signs and flags.
‘Our attention has been drawn to serious concerns on the part of Jewish residents of Tower Hamlets regarding the proliferation of large Palestine flags on lamp-posts in public streets as well as posters and stickers with inflammatory content,’ Mr Turner wrote.
‘These displays intimidate Jewish people and may encourage violence against them. We believe that many of the flags, posters and stickers are displayed on land owned or occupied by Tower Hamlets Council.
‘The Council has not taken all reasonable steps to secure the removal of flags, posters and stickers on its land and therefore has committed and is committing criminal offences.’
Mr Turner, himself a practicing intellectual property lawyer, added that responsible council officers could also be construed as being guilty of an offence under the same law – including the mayor, Mr Rahman.
The letter concluded: ‘It appears that the Mayor of Tower Hamlets has neglected to ensure the removal of the flags, posters and stickers.
‘Accordingly, both the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and the Council appear to be guilty of multiple criminal offences in this matter.’
Yesterday, UKLFI also reported what it said was another criminal offence to the police, of a man putting up a guerilla campaign poster in a bus stop in Tower Hamlets that bore the slogan: ‘Palestine has the right to resist’.
Pro-Palestinian protests throughout London have attracted thousands since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas (pictured: a December 9 rally)
UK Lawyers for Israel claims that posters being displayed in Tower Hamlets could ‘stir up racial hatred’ (pictured: a protester wears a mask of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest on Saturday)
Police have made a number of arrests during protests in connection with alleged support for Hamas, which is a proscribed terror group (pictured: scuffles with protesters in November)
Caroline Turner, director of the group, said in her letter to the police: ‘In my view all these slogans are likely to stir up racial hatred of Israelis and Jews, and to encourage violence against Israelis and Jews contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.’
Mr Rahman was re-elected as mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2022 after being kicked out for electoral fraud. He and his supporters were found to have used intimidation, vote-rigging and false claims about his Labour rival to secure his victory in 2014.
He founded a new party, Aspire, in order to stand on the ballot two years ago, and said after being re-elected: ‘A large number of people came and trusted me and Aspire and our activists to deliver for them going forward.’
A spokesman for Tower Hamlets council told the Telegraph: ‘As one of the most diverse areas in the country, we are monitoring any community tensions closely with our Tension Monitoring Group, which includes the police and representatives from a broad range of community organisations.
‘A number of Palestinian flags have been put up by the public in recent months. While we appreciate people want to express their support for Palestine, we have a routine responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure. The situation is under regular review.
‘Separately to Palestinian flags, the council will remove at the earliest opportunity any graffiti, posters or flags which are racist or generally offensive.
‘We are not aware of any criminal offences related to Palestinian flags not being removed, and we will continue to work closely with police partners to manage the situation.’
UKLFI has been advocating for Israel for several years with sometimes controversial tactics. In a written submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2017, it claimed that bodies such as the UN spent ‘vast sums of money seeking to find fault with Israel at every turn’.
In 2020, it settled out of court with the charity Defense for Children International Palestine after describing the non-profit as being ‘terror linked’ and as having ‘close links to a terrorist organisation’.
In recent days, the organisation has been vocal in its opposition to a motion lodged with the International Court of Justice by South Africa accusing Israel of perpetuating genocide in the Gaza strip.
Natasha Hausdorff, chair and legal director of UKLFI, repeated a claim from the IDF on Michael Portillo’s GB News programme earlier today that the number of civilians being killed compared to Hamas militants ‘two-to-one’.
Quoting a UN estimate that the normal civilian-to-combatant ratio of casualties is nine-to-one, she said: ‘That puts the lie to any suggestion that international law is being violated in terms of the broader humanitarian law.’
Flames rise from the sites of Israeli shelling in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on January 7
Palestinians attempt to lift rubble in their search for survivors of Israeli shelling in Morag, south of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip on January 7
The remnants of a car in which journalists Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were travelling when they were killed by Israeli shells
Wael Al-Dahdouh (left), who lost his wife, grandchild and two of his children to Israeli bombs in October, mourns his son Hamza after the strike at the weekend killed son Hamza
An IDF soldier guards the entrance to a tunnel that the military claims was used by Hamas to access Israel on October 7, when it killed an estimated 1,200 Israelis
More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in the months of counter-shelling by Israel
Police made a number of arrests on Saturday after hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters rallied in Central London and marched from St James’s Park to Westminster Bridge, where they staged a sit-in.
More than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed in the three months since Israel began its counter-offensive in Gaza, following the October 7 attacks that saw Hamas terrorists kill an estimated 1,200 Israelis.
International observers have made repeated calls for Israel to show restraint in its bombardment of the occupied Palestinian territory amid mass civilian casualties. The UN says up to 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
Israel insists that it is bombing Hamas targets, accusing the terror group of inserting itself into civilian populations and infrastructure in order to use innocent Gazans as human shields.
There are fears that the months-long conflict could spark a wider Middle Eastern war amid flaring tensions with neighbouring Lebanon.
Two more journalists working for Qatar-based network Al Jazeera were killed in what it said was a ‘targeted killing’ by Israeli troops.
Hamza Wael Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were killed while on their way to carry out reporting in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army told AFP that it had ‘struck a terrorist’ as it carried out the strike.
Hamza was the son of Wael Al-Dahdouh, the Al Jazeera bureau chief who lost his wife, grandchild and two of his children to Israeli bombs in October. The journalist staunchly returned to work to continue reporting on the conflict a day later.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 79 journalists and media professionals, the vast majority Palestinian, have been killed since October 7.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is set to arrive in Israel shortly for talks, in which he will urge Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties and to ensure that Palestinians can return home once the conflict ends.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has vowed to continue fighting.
‘The war must not be stopped until we achieve all the goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,’ he said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.