No tracking. No cookies
Subscriptions
Subscriptions
Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on ‘what the papers don’t say’ – without fear or favour.
To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.
An 87 year old survivor of the Holocaust has been summoned for a police interview over his participation in the January 18th protest in central London against Israel’s war in Gaza, Byline Times understands.
Stephen Kapos, who lived in hiding from the Nazis in his native Hungary in 1944 until the country’s liberation by the Soviets, has been formally invited for police interview regarding alleged breaches of the Public Order Act during the large pro-Palestine protest, where a PSC delegation (including himself and MPs Jeremy Corbyn, and John McDonnell) walked with flowers toward the BBC.
He told Byline Times the police lines “melted away” as they proceeded, and suggests the police may have deliberately created a situation to entrap protesters into committing technical breaches.
Given the police interviews with high profile figures involved in the demonstration, including suspended Labour MP John McDonnell, Kapos views the move as politically motivated policing. Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal and Stop the War coalition leader Chris Nineham have been formally charged and are going through the prosecution process.
Kapos, who now lives in North London, takes part in peace marches with a group called “Holocaust Survivors and Descendants Against the Genocide,” putting forward their Jewish identity and countering claims that the protests are antisemitic.
ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE
Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account.
We’re not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe.
He told Byline Times in an exclusive interview that the Met Police alleges that he breached Section 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The Met Police claims that, contrary to police orders, he took part in a group which departed from the assembly point, which was at Whitehall, towards [BBC HQ] Portland Place, with an intention to get to Portland Place, when it was a prescribed area under strict protest conditions by the Met Police that day, ostensibly to avoid disrupting a nearby synagogue.
Another claim from the force is that the delegation had breached a police line by heading towards Portland Place. The delegation was intended by organisers to be a compromise to avoid a complete police ban.
A delegation was selected by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign of those who spoke that day, including Kapos. High-profile figures like MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell also addressed the crowds.
Speakers aimed to walk towards the BBC if possible, but if not, to lay down flowers in front of the police.
“The flowers were meant to symbolise our respect and sadness over the number of children killed in the Gaza genocide. But if the police were to stop us, then laying down the flowers in front of the police was meant also to symbolise their obstruction. It was meant to be entirely peaceful, and it was, but technically, according to the police, we breached their orders,” Kapos says.
Hundreds of Protesters Jailed Under Anti-Protest Laws Could Appeal Convictions if Court Challenge Succeeds
Campaigners are challenging the lawfulness of restrictions brought in by the former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman
Kapos, and other organisers, say one of the police lines “melted away”. “There was a thin line of police at Whitehall, or before we reached Trafalgar Square—just a line of policemen holding hands. And when we reached them, they melted away. They stepped aside.”
Further on he claims that police “let us” go through. Video footage from the day appears to corroborate this.
“At either place, it was quite clear that they were under instruction not to resist but to melt away.”
He claims that the purpose “was simply to trap us into a misdemeanour.”
Speaking to this outlet, the peace campaigner also strongly refutes press and right-wing characterisations of the protests as “hate marches,” describing them instead as family-friendly gatherings with a warm atmosphere where Jewish protesters are welcomed.
He believes the protest movement is being suppressed because political leaders fear the electoral implications, citing the success of several pro-Gaza independents in the last election.
Kapos argues that policing of protests has become more hard-line under the Labour Government, with the January 18th demonstration marking a “watershed” with nearly 80 arrests compared to the usual handful at previous demonstrations.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “As part of our ongoing investigation into alleged breaches of Public Order Act conditions on Saturday, 18 January we have invited a further eight people to be interviewed under caution at a police station.
“While we are aware of names being attributed to those who have been invited for interview, we do not confirm the identity of anyone under investigation.”
Calls for the Crown to Stop Prosecuting Peaceful Climate Protesters as Prisons Clogged and Criminals are ‘Let Off’
The Government is accused of pushing public bodies to go tougher on protesters
The Met Police claims Public Order Act conditions were clearly communicated to organisers and advertised in advance ahead of the January 18th protest.
According to the Met Police, 21 have been charged from the protest so far for allegedly breaching protest conditions that day.
The Holocaust survivor was previously an official in Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency Labour party. Kapos resigned from the Labour Party after being threatened with disciplinary action for agreeing to speak about his Holocaust experiences at an event hosted by a proscribed socialist group, under Keir Starmer’s clampdown against individuals he claimed were minimising the scale of antisemitism in the party.
He believes now-PM Starmer has adopted increasingly authoritarian positions, banning some political discussions on Israel within the party – and now allegedly encouraging police crackdowns on peaceful marchers.
Don’t miss a story
Kapos draws parallels between his experiences during the Holocaust in Hungary and the situation in Gaza – particularly regarding frequent forced displacement, mass destruction of buildings, large-scale killings and traumatic decisions by families on where they can go or who must be left behind.
He describes his childhood experiences wearing the yellow star, living in designated “yellow star houses,” and hiding in children’s homes with false papers while Budapest was under the control of fascists. He was seven at the time, and remembers pretending to be a Christian, hiding his identity from fascist officers at a Christmas event beneath a large Nazi flag, as the Soviets approached the city.
Many of his relatives perished at Auschwitz. “There was one member of the family, an uncle, who was quite seriously ill, and the family turned [an] offer [to escape] down because they thought that he couldn’t take that journey. And all of them ended up in Auschwitz, with just one or two returning.”
He identifies what he calls “invisible pains” – the psychological and mental trauma that accompanies physical suffering during genocide, which he sees happening in Gaza.
The interview came as part of research for an upcoming book by Peter Oborne on the UK’s response to the war on Gaza, titled: “Complicit.” Josiah is working on a chapter concerning the policing of the protests against the war, and the political climate surrounding them.
Update: This piece has been amended to refer to January 18th demonstration as a protest procession rather than a march.
Subscribers Get More from JOSIAH
Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
So for more from him…
