The row over the failure to tackle supporters of terrorism on Britain’s streets has deepened with a former cabinet minister stepping in to demand that the police start making arrests.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has described pro-Hamas supporters as “vile” and questioned why the police have not arrested them.
It follows concerns about protesters in London over the weekend being seen wearing black paraglider badges glorifying Hamas’s attack on October 7 which led to more than 1,400 Israel civilians being killed.
Paragliders were one of the methods of the attack and the symbol has also been adopted by the far-left Black Lives Matter group in support of the terrorist atrocities which included children being burnt alive and babies beheaded.
There have also been concerns that the police did not intervene when pro-Palestinians took to the streets after the attacks to openly celebrate including a group in front of a Jewish restaurant where Countdown’s Rachel Riley was present.
In a message on his website, Sir Iain said: “Hamas’s assault on Israel was an act of war by this brutal terrorist organisation. Their murder of innocent men, women and children, abduction, even rape was appalling.
“Here, in the UK it was right that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak’s statement of support was immediate and was backed by all parties in our parliament.”
But he went on: “Over the weekend the usual suspects erupted onto our streets to claim that Israel and the Jewish people were responsible for human rights abuses.
“They cheered Hamas and paraded their message of hate.
“A number waved Hamas flags and chanted ‘from the river to the sea’ which articulates Hamas’s desire to eradicate Israel and the Jews.
“What vile people they are. They, like too many before them, are the ‘useful idiots’ of this violent terrorist group and they must not be allowed to get away with such hate-filled bile.
“That is why the police need to identify those who wore the photos, and waved Hamas flags whilst chanting their hate filled slogans and arrest them swiftly. I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering why they have been so slow to do so.”
He added: “For those who hurled abuse at Israel and supported the Hamas terrorists as they went about their murderous rampage by wearing hateful photos of people in motorised gliders, the facts should be very clear.
“First, Hamas alone are responsible and accountable. Second, Hamas is a terrorist organisation and Israel has the clear right to defend itself. Third, Israel has the right to also do what it must to ensure that such evil people cannot carry out such an attack ever again.”
Sir Iain was also highly critical of the BBC’s coverage after it refused to describe Hamas with the accurate word “terrorist”.
Instead, in an attempt to equivocate and share blame with Israel the BBC insists on calling Hamas “fighters” or “militants”.
Other critics have suggested that the BBC is “institutionally antisemitic” and the Corporation has refused to publish a 2004 report into whether its coverage of Israel is biassed.
However, it has emerged that six of its journalists celebrated and supported the Hamas atrocities last week.
He was also outraged that civil servants had tried to oppose the UK Government’s decision to hoist the Israeli flag in solidarity.
Sir Iain said: “Too many in public service are so quick to virtue signal to a myriad of causes yet when asked to show full support for the Israeli people, find trouble, as we discover, in hoisting the Israeli flag.
“Ministers are forced to order them to do so. And much of the public can’t understand why the BBC still refuses to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
“After all, Parliament has done so and proscribed it, as have other democratic countries – how can the BBC believe they need to be impartial about such an organisation?
“We should have learned the lesson from ISIS. They had to be destroyed before we had any chance of freeing those trapped in their murderous embrace. So it must now be with Hamas.”
