Renewed attacks by pro-Israeli figures on IHRC, have seen this last two weeks, attacks on its bookshop and gallery around the artwork ‘Kuffiyeh Resistance’ by artist Intifada Street. A brief summary posted on X can be found first after our response to the Reform UK Member of the London Assembly, Alex Wilson, who has waded in with demands to the Metropolitan Police.
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Response to MLA Alex Wilson
Dear Mr Wilson,
We write in response to your letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner of 24 December, urging him to act in relation to a poster displayed in the IHRC Bookshop & Gallery window.
The letter makes the preposterous claim that the artwork featuring a Palestinian keffiyeh by an artist known as ‘Intifada Street’ incites hatred towards Jews.
We do not wish to dignify your rather embarrassing and ill-informed supposition by explaining the artwork, but suffice it to say that it is an expression of defiance and resistance against oppression of the kind that has led to many historical atrocities, including the Holocaust and the recent genocide in Gaza. It is a wholly disingenuous leap of the imagination to suggest, as you do in your Facebook post, that the image represents a Hamas fighter.
From consulting the London Assembly register of interests, it would appear to us that your motives for complaining have more to do with your support of the genocidal Israeli regime than any genuine desire to protect constituents.
We refer, of course, to your visit to Israel in November this year, a trip that was paid for by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the face of your own register entry (foreign ministry funding and official briefings) this looks less like independent fact-finding and more like a state messaging programme. In our view, and in the view of many fair-minded Londoners who will read your register entry as we have, this is propaganda.
You even missed the annual Remembrance Day service at City Hall to attend this propaganda event. It is quite revealing about your priorities that you preferred to visit an Israeli state propaganda briefing[i] over representing your constituents and joining colleagues to lay wreaths in honour of the British servicemen and women who gave their lives for the UK in the Second World War.
It should also concern the people of London you were elected to represent that, instead of defending their freedoms, particularly freedom of speech which you so vociferously claim to champion, you are pressing for police to silence lawful political and artistic expression. Many Londoners will reasonably view the acceptance of funded foreign trips in this context as compromising. At the very least, it undermines your independence and credibility when discussing criticism of Israel and Zionism.
In fact, you should be ashamed of yourself. Weaponising the recent Bondi beach attack to justify restrictions on legitimate freedom of expression in the UK is a demeaning new low, even by your standards. People who stand for freedom of expression don’t seek to ban words, especially when they disagree with their political content. That is hypocrisy. Given the Free Speech Union’s well-documented hypocrisy, it is hardly surprising that members like you display the same qualities.
You must also surely be aware that hyped up narratives against our organisation in the past has resulted in threats of and actual violence against us. Your comments help hype up racist narratives against us, and are reckless in the extreme. They also contribute to a general atmosphere of hatred against pro-Palestinians (including very many Jewish activists) and Muslims, against whom violence has been on the increase. It seems you have little care for the actual safety and security of London’s communities, and have no qualms fomenting the hatred and racist misrepresentations that lead to violence.
We note that the Metropolitan Police seem to have recognised your political agenda and bias, and chosen not to take any action. Can we suggest that you desist from plying a divisive foreign agenda and political narrative against Londoners and instead do what you were elected to do: serve all your constituents and represent their interests.
Yours sincerely,
Massoud Shadjareh
Chair
CC
Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley
NW BCU Commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan
Background to the attacks
We had a visit from the local police yesterday, and one from Brent enforcement team today. Apparently they have been receiving complaints about the front display of the IHRC bookshop. Yesterday the police decided they would have a look as coincidentally this post went up on X.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/e3PlVZXVqm— IHRC Bookshop & Gallery (@ihrcbookshop) December 19, 2025
