Recently, a storm has been whipped up about an encounter between an apparently Jewish man and a police officer at a pro-Palestine protest. This is hardly the first time controversy regarding pro-Palestine protests has occurred, however this specific case drew the attention of the Mayor of London, the Policing minister, the Home Secretary and the Prime minister himself.

The BBC reports that the Jewish man in question, Gideon Falter, "was told by police his presence was causing a 'breach of peace' ". In the approximately one-minute clip circulated online, the man appears to want to cross the road and is being prevented. The police officer offers to escort the man himself once the crowd has passed, yet the man appears to refuse. A second clip shows the police officer threatening to arrest him if he remains there since his presence is antagonizing a large group of people.

The clip in question has caused outrage amongst the political class and stirred up controversy; on the surface level, why wouldn't it? A Jewish man who merely wishes to cross the crowd is being prevented from doing so because he is 'openly Jewish' as the officer said, so why shouldn't there be outrage? Why shouldn't political figures call for the resignation of the police chief? Antisemitism levels are rising so surely such outrage is justified?

There are, as in many cases of misinformation, many missing pieces of this puzzle.

Sky News released a 13-minute video, caught by their cameramen, of the full exchange. Viewing the clip that generated controversy in full context reveals the Jewish man in question was deliberately being provocative, often trying to force his way past the officers into the crowd. The clip is available for all to see on Sky News' YouTube channel. As always, we welcome our readers to draw their own conclusions.

Missing context is often used to spread misinformation.

With added context, it seems that this man was yearning for a confrontation with protestors. Other clips have been released too, showing this confrontation was not the only one that happened that day; the Jewish man in question had confrontations with several different officers in different locations. In one of the clips, a witness claimed that the Jewish man had been 'going in and out of the protestors'.

As you would have noticed, we have described him as the 'Jewish man', precisely because we wish to elucidate how this Jewish man is not any old Jewish man. Gideon Falter, the 'Jewish man' in question, who has been described as an 'antisemitism campaigner', is the leader of the CAA, the Campaign Against Antisemitism, an organisation that has engaged in 'persistent conflation and equating of antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel' according to the Jewish Voice for Labour(JVL). Their presence at the counter-protests to a Palestine solidarity march therefore is unsurprising, considering their Zionistic roots. After all, Gideon Falter is also the leader of the UK branch of the Jewish National Fund(JNF), an organisation that has admitted to 'fund[ing] projects within settlements' at least before 2021, where they announced they would subsidize Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Settlements in the West Bank are illegal according to the vast majority of countries around the world including the United States, Israel's greatest ally.

Gideon Falter, leader of Campaign Against Antisemitism

Sprinkling some more context appears to show that Mr Falter, for the past few months since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7th, has been calling for the end of pro-Palestine marches, marches that most of the country agrees are absolutely valid and an expression of free-speech. The CAA, the organisation which Mr Falter is the head of, has repeatedly organised counter-protests to pro-Palestinian marches that happen every Saturday. He has compared the movement to a fascistic movement, demonizing protestors protesting lawfully under British democracy.

The head of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who organises pro-Palestinian protests, responded to the incident by saying that Mr Falter came to the march with an entourage, tried to push past police officers to walk in front of the march, to provoke protestors and to try and stop the march.

The fact that the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, some of the most powerful people in Britain, fell for this ruse elucidates a strong problem with misinformation in Britain. The Prime Minister's office has been contacted for a response.

In light of the events in Gaza, which the ICJ on the 26th of January deemed a 'plausible genocide' (edit: in April it was clarified by Joan Donoghue, the president of the ICJ when the ruling was issued, that the court ruled that Palestinians had 'plausible rights to protection from genocide', not that there was a 'plausible genocide'), one must be wary of those, who are affiliated with the Israeli state, accusing people or groups or movements of antisemitism. Such false accusations only seek to quieten or demonize voices in opposition to the actions of the Israeli state.

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