Supporters cheer Holocaust survivor questioned by police over Gaza protest

Protesters gathered on Friday outside a London police station in support of an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor questioned as part of an investigation into alleged public order offences during a pro-Palestine demonstration.

Walking with the aid of a stick up the gentle slope from The Strand, and wearing a grey overcoat, a green scarf and a flat cap, Stephen Kapos smiled and waved as he passed through cheering supporters and up the steps into Charing Cross Police Station at 2.40 pm.

Supporters waved Palestinian flags and banged drums chanting "Defend Stephen Kapos". Among them was at least one other Holocaust survivor and a number of descendants of survivors who unfurled a banner which read: “Holocaust survivor descendants against genocide”.

Mark Etkind, the son of a survivor of the Lodz ghetto and the Buchenwald concentration camp, told Middle East Eye it was “absurd” that Jews such as Kapos were facing “persecution by the police” for protesting against the war in Gaza.

Etkind said: “As we speak, the ceasefire has collapsed and, if Stephen was here now, and he can’t be because he is being interviewed in that building, he would be begging the world to protest and stop this genocide because that is the prime lesson we should all learn from the Holocaust.”

Read more: Supporters cheer Holocaust survivor questioned by police over Gaza protest