Stephen Kapos is a Holocaust survivor. But because he opposes Israel’s genocide in Gaza, UK police want to question him “under caution” today (Friday 21 March). This is specifically in relation to the 18 January protest in solidarity with Palestine, which authorities sought to repress.
However, protesters will be outside Charing Cross police station at 2pm to show solidarity with 87-year-old Kapos, whom police aim to cross-examine at 2.30pm. The Stop the War coalition said:
That a Holocaust survivor is being pursued by the police in this way underlines the unjustifiable extremes to which the police are prepared to go to restrict the right to public protest and silence the Palestine solidarity movement.
It added that Kapos is:
among a number of activists sent police letters calling them in for questioning by the Met. All those who received the letters were simply carrying flowers to lay down in commemoration of the tens of thousands of civilians, the majority of them women and children, slaughtered by Israel since October 2023.
Another show of solidarity with Kapos has come from forty Holocaust survivors and their descendants, who have denounced the persecution of the 87-year-old in a letter. They said:
Any repression of the right to protest is bad enough – but to persecute a Jewish 87 year old whose Holocaust experiences compel him to speak out against the Gaza genocide, is quite appalling.
This very concerning development makes it even more important for Jews to speak out against the genocide.
— Stop the War (@STWuk) March 19, 2025
Police harassment of Jewish anti-war voices
Jewish anti-war campaigner and anti-apartheid veteran Andrew Feinstein, meanwhile, has revealed that the police have been harassing people like Kapos even away from street protests. As he said this week:
At the @STWuk meeting to defend the right to protest tonight, the police turned up & wanted to know who had organised the meeting, who was speaking, who was attending. In the meeting a Holocaust survivor, who should know, warned us about the rise of fascism.
At the @STWuk meeting to defend the right to protest tonight, the police turned up & wanted to know who had organised the meeting, who was speaking, who was attending. In the meeting a Holocaust survivor, who should know, warned us about the rise of fascism.
'Those who do not… https://t.co/c29asJfgkd— Andrew Feinstein (@andrewfeinstein) March 20, 2025
Yesterday we joined @STWuk, PSC Chair @LouRegan1, Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos and @andrewfeinstein who spoke powerfully about defending the right to protest. Today we will be outside Charing Cross police station at 2pm in support of Stephen Kapos. Pls join us! #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/u8Gu1Vd9et
— Brent & Harrow PSC (@BrentHarrowPSC) March 21, 2025
Carolyn Gelenter, whose father was a Holocaust survivor, previously told the Canary about how frightening it is that police officers “have lost their humanity” in their aggressive persecution of people opposing genocide. She also worried about “what it’s doing to us as a society” to see our government deny genocide and crack down on those who oppose it. And responding to police officers who say they’re ‘just following orders’, she said:
We all commit acts of evil by obeying orders.
Other Holocaust survivors and their descendants have also expressed their serious concerns about the political agenda of trying to suppress anti-genocide voices using police intimidation. And as those expressing solidarity with Kapos have insisted, the more authorities try to silence voices of humanity, the more important it is for us to speak out and resist.
Featured image supplied
