Four men charged with yelling antisemitic abuse from a car in a ‘Convoy for Palestine’ protest will be tried by a crown court jury.
Mohammed Iftikhar Hanif, 27, Jawaad Hussain, 24, Asif Ali, 25 and Adil Mota, 26, all from Blackburn, Lancs, were said to be part of a convoy travelling through St John’s Wood.
Footage shared on social media in May appeared to show the convoy of cars driving through Jewish communities in London, waving Palestinian flags and shouting racially and sexually explicit language, including threats of rape. The four men appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and spoke only to confirm their names and addresses. Their lawyers indicated they would all be denying the charges.
Kathryn Selby, prosecuting, said: “The four defendants had travelled to London to attend a protest under the name of ‘Convoy for Palestine. On their way back, it will be the Crown’s case, they went out of their way to travel through Finchley Road”.
Ms Selby said flags were waved from the car on the road which houses the Jewish Centre and witnesses heard chants including, “f–k all of them, f–k the mothers, f–k the daughters”. Following the incidents, the Parliamentary Chairs of Conservative Friends of Israel (Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP) and Labour Friends of Israel (Steve McCabe MP) jointly wrote to Dame Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police expressing “serious concerns” that the incidents “seek to intimidate and incite violence, and directly harm social cohesion in the heart of the Capital”.
