Riot police march through Regent’s Park and put millionaire’s row of flats in lockdown after stand-off with squatters over anti-Semitic ‘globalise the intifada’ banner

Riot police have been marching through London’s Regent’s Park this afternoon and have placed a millionaire’s row of flats in lockdown after an anti-Semitic banner calling to ‘globalise the intifada’ was hung up by squatters.

Police have engaged in a stand-off with the squatters occupying the building, while residents in the city’s affluent Regents Park area, where properties can fetch up to £20 million, have been blocked off from entering their homes.

Police have cordoned off the scene, with several police officers and vehicles also present.

According to one local, it is squatters who put the anti-Semitic sign up and police are now in a standoff to get in and remove it.

Two women, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘We’ve been out this morning and we came back to all the police officers.

Riot police have been marching through London’s Regent’s Park this afternoon after an anti-Semitic banner calling to ‘globalise the intifada’ was hung up by squatters

Police engaged in a stand-off with squatters occupying the building in the millionaires row

Residents in the city’s affluent park area have been blocked off from entering their homes

Police have cordoned off the scene, with several police officers and vehicles also present

‘No one is telling us anything, except that we’re not allowed back inside.’

A Met Police officer at the scene said: ‘People inside the building are being kept inside, while people outside are being kept outside for the time being.’

The banner is currently still suspended from the building.

Earlier this morning, Campaign Against Antisemitism posted a photo of the banner on Twitter, accompanied by the caption: ‘We have been contacted by distressed members of the public regarding a banner calling to ‘globalise the intifada.

‘This was seen this morning on a home in Regent’s Park. Past intifadas were campaigns of violence that included suicide bombings.’

The slogans and related chants have been a subject of controversy of late; particularly since protestors took to the streets following the October 7 attacks in Israel.

The slogan has been criticized by Jewish groups as inciting widespread violence or terrorism, with some interpreting it as a rallying cry for harming Jews. 

The Met Police’s official Twitter account commented on the post: ‘Our officers are on scene responding to this incident, investigating, and providing reassurance.’

According to one local, it is squatters who put the anti-Semitic sign up and police are now in a standoff to get in and remove it 

A Met Police officer at the scene said: ‘People inside the building are being kept inside, while people outside are being kept outside for the time being’ 

A police car is seen cordoning off the area on what is believed to be Park East Street

A Met Police at the scene added: ‘I’ve been told that the premises we are interested in is an old theatre or old cinema, but people do live on the street too.’

One person, who works in a building on the street, claimed: ‘They’re trying to remove squatters inside.

‘Someone said it’s some kind of standoff.’

According to photos from the scene, the building appears to be The Diorama Offices in Park Street East, where properties can fetch up to £10 million.

In 1994 the building was refurbished by The Prince’s Trust for use as offices. In recent years it has been vacant, with numerous further attempts to find other acceptable uses for this last surviving building of its type. 

Planning consent was finally granted in 2020 to return the two flanking town houses, 17 & 19 Park Square East, to separate residential use, and retain the Diorama as offices.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police said antisemitic attacks in London increased by 1,353 per cent following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on 7 October.

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has previously said about the use of ‘intifada’: ‘The world feels different because at the very moment when it should be clearer than ever what is meant by Hamas’s “resistance”, “jihad”, “uprising”, or “intifada”, more and more people are now openly calling for these things in cities across Britain and the world.

‘This is hateful extremism.’

Source: Read Full Article