UK Police Arrest Women Who Attended Gaza Protest Wearing Paraglider-Print Shirts

hamas gliders london
Getty Images / London Metropolitan Police Handout / Collage
Oliver JJ Lane

London police have made the latest in a series of arrests related to the repeated Gaza and Hamas protests in recent weeks, now arresting two women on suspicion of terrorism offences for wearing prints of paragliders stuck to their clothing at a rally.

Two women, aged 29 and 44 years old surrendered themselves to police and were arrested “on suspicion of inviting support for a proscribed organisation” under the Terrorism Act after the Metropolitan Police published their images in an appeal for information. The pair are being held at a police station, the force said.

Images of four people had been published by police on the 27th relating to “Pro-Palestine” protests on October 14th and 21st, with three of those being women wearing print-outs of paragliders taped to their clothes. The fourth was a man carrying a “I fully support Hamas” placard.

The paraglider has rapidly become a symbol alluding to the October 7th Hamas attack against Israel, one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in history, in which over 1,400 residents of and visitors to Israel were killed, some in the most brutal circumstances. Paragliders were used by Hamas terrorists to cross undetected into Israeli territory in large numbers, launching attacks against civilians once they landed.

Two people remain outstanding from the police’s appeal. In an update issued overnight, the force described the third woman who has not yet come forward as “dark skinned, wearing light brown trousers and a long-sleeved red top. She initially had a blue denim jacket tied around her waist and later put this on over her red top. She is wearing a light blue medical face mask and a dark scarf or bandana around her head. She also has a dark red shoulder bag.”

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said of the appeal: “If the people in the pictures recognise themselves, I urge them to come forward so we can speak with them.”

The man waving the pro-Hamas placard is described as: “He has short hair, light skin and is wearing a blue jacket with a light top underneath, a light stripy scarf around his neck, and light trousers or jeans.”

Hamas is what the UK government calls a proscribed organisation in Britain, which is to say supporting it is banned. This is a reasonably recent development, it was only in 2021 this ban was put into force, and it only applies to the so-called military wing of Hamas, meaning support for what the British government calls “the so called political [wing]” remains legal.

Hamas is not the only proscribed group in the UK that focuses on the destruction of Israel: the British government also bans the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, the Abu Nidal Organisation, Al Qa’ida, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Hizballah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The paraglider-clothing women are not the only arrests made in London over the recent wave of Gaza protests. On Sunday, two women were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after another similar appeal, with London broadcaster LBC reporting they had been filmed chanting about “an ancient massacre of Jewish people in the Middle East” referenced in the Koran at the Battle of Khaybar in 628AD at a protest on Saturday.

As noted by the Anti-Defamation League, references to the Battle of Khaybar “has been heard at numerous anti-Israel demonstrations around the world” and refers to “purported acts of Jewish treachery… these battles resulted in the subjugation, mass expulsion, or slaughter of the area’s tribal Jewish communities.”

The arrests of individuals wearing brand new symbols of terrorism — a stylised paraglider — underlines some criticism of the Metropolitan Police being perceived to be inactive in the face of what has been perceived as pro-terror demonstrations. One particular example which sparked heated discussion in the United Kingdom in recent weeks is the chanting of “Jihad” at protests, perceived by some to be a call to war, but dismissed by police as too-broadly defined.

The BBC, for instance, explains away the chant, noting for some Muslims Jihad means “internal struggle”. A police statement said in response to footage of the shouting of “Jihad” where the question as asked by a speaker: “What is the solution to liberate people in the concentration camp called Palestine?” stated: “The word jihad has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism.

“We have specialist counter terrorism officers here in the operations room who have particular knowledge in this area… They have assessed this video, filmed at the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in central London today, and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip.”

In all, London police are reported to have arrested around 100 people over protests linked to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel since October 7th.

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.  The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters. 

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