Anti-Hamas Campaigner Arrested After Eating Banana, Holding England Flag at London Protest.
Getty ImagesAn Iranian exile waved the St George’s Cross flag and ate a banana at a pro-Hamas protest in London last week, and was arrested over allegedly making a racist gesture.
Niyak Ghorbani, who self-describes as an “Iranian guest in [the] UK”, has become a frequent fixture at pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests in London in recent months for attending with a sign reading “Hamas are Terrorists”. The sign, while it may be provoking to the protesters, does reflect the legal position of the British government: Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group under the Terrorism Act 2000. Yet, Ghorbani has been arrested several times for the sign.
Now the anti-Hamas activist has been arrested again, but not for carrying a sign, but rather for brandishing then eating a banana, and for carrying the flag of England, the country he was in at the time of the arrest.