Far right Hotovely’s supporters claimed she had to flee protesters, but police say no arrests and nothing to investigate
The Metropolitan Police has said there is no investigation into the supposed incident at the London School of Economics (LSE) last week in which Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely was filmed being bundled out of the building and rushed away in a car to ‘escape’ protesters.
Some of Hotovely’s supporters claimed that protesters had planned online to intimidate her by smashing up her car, although the video footage showed only protesters shouting ‘Shame on you’. The right-wing Jewish Chronicle described the incident as ‘violent racists looking for a Jew to attack’.
Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi said the footage was ‘deeply disturbing’ and that he was ‘so sorry’. And while Labour leader Keir Starmer has remained silent vile racism against one of his own Muslim MPs last week, he was quick to stand by an an ‘ultra right’ Israeli official who dismisses the idea of a Palestinian state and opposes marriage between Jews and Arabs and was described in an opinion piece in the Israeli paper Ha’Aretz as ‘the ugly, extremist face of Israel’. Starmer and other right-wing Labour figures went on to dine with Hotovely at the annual Labour Friends of Israel dinner this week.
But according to the Met Police, it seems there was no incident worth investigating – and no arrests made at or as a result of the protest outside the LSE event.
It appears that a legitimate and lawful protest against racism and apartheid was characterised as a hate incident for political purposes by politicians and the media.
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