After officer warns campaigner for being 'openly Jewish'... Met Police are so ... trends now
Scotland Yard was facing yet more anger from Jewish groups on Saturday after a Holocaust memorial was covered up over fears it would be vandalised by pro-Palestine activists.
Officials in Hyde Park yesterday hid Britain's first public memorial to the six million victims of the Nazi genocide under a blue tarpaulin in a move one Holocaust survivor called 'shameful'.
The monument was then guarded by Metropolitan Police officers to stop it being targeted by pro-Palestine protesters who marched through London in yet another demonstration against the war in Gaza.
Police chiefs have been urged to halt the almost weekly marches through Central London, which critics warn have turned the capital into a 'no-go' area for Jewish people.
Thirteen marches held since the start of the war in October have now cost taxpayers £38.4 million to police.
Scotland Yard was facing yet more anger from Jewish groups on Saturday after a Holocaust memorial was covered up over fears it would be vandalised by pro-Palestine activists
The memorial consists of two boulders lying within a gravel bed, surrounded by a copse of silver birch trees. It is inscribed in both English and Hebrew with the words 'For these I weep. Streams of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of my people,' which is a quotation from the Book of Lamentations
'Shameful': Holocaust survivor Noemi Ebenstein, 82, called for tougher action on anti-Semitism after the monument in Hyde Park was covered up as a 'precautionary measure'
'Hundreds of thousands' of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through London today
Police officers detain a person as people take part in a pro-Palestine march on Whitehall in central London
Thirteen marches held since the start of the war in October have now cost taxpayers £38.4 million to police
Holocaust survivor Noemi Ebenstein, 82, said on Saturday the world needs to wake up to the scourge of anti-Semitism following another day of swastikas being waved through London.
On seeing the covered shrine, she said: 'It is shameful. Seeing this, it feels like they are winning.
'Those who are Jew haters, those who are Holocaust deniers, they are winning because we are afraid of them.
'I just wish the Western world would stand up to these people, instead of running away, covering up monuments and being apologetic.'
Stephen Pollard, editor-at-large of the Jewish Chronicle, demanded that police take sterner action to stamp out the marches.
'What is the line that needs to be crossed for people to think it's not OK for these hate marches to continue?' he said.
'This is just totally damning of where we are now.
'It shows the depravity of so much of what's happening in London at the moment that they think it's important that they cover up a Holocaust memorial.'
Tory peer Lord Pickles, the UK's special envoy on post-Holocaust issues, said the sight of the memorial wrapped in plastic sheeting 'sends a terrible message to Jews in London and across the UK'.
Lord Pickles, who has been spearheading moves to get a national Holocaust memorial built next to the Houses of Parliament, said: 'The sight of this precious memorial to the Holocaust being wrapped in plastic sheeting is truly shocking.
'Have we become so cowed and fearful in this country that instead of expecting pro-Palestinian protesters to obey the law, we hide away the memorial to save it from vandalism?'
Tory peer Lord Polak, president of
