Police to question 'The Crown' star Abdalla and Holocaust survivor over pro-Palestine protest

Khalid Abdalla, the British-Egyptian star of the hit show The Crown, and 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos are among those who have been ordered to attend formal interviews with the Metropolitan Police over alleged public order breaches at a pro-Palestine rally in London in January.

Abdalla, who played Princess Diana's lover Dodi Fayed in the hit Netflix drama The Crown, said on Monday: "I received a letter from the Metropolitan Police summoning me to attend 'a formal interview' in relations to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign protest of Jan 18th."

So far, 21 people have been charged so far over the protest, the police said. They include the rally's chief steward Chris Nineham and Palestine Solidarity campaign director Ben Jamal. 

The Met accused demonstrators on 18 January of breaking through a police cordon in Trafalgar Square, a claim which organisers and protesters, including prominent politicians, strongly deny.

Kapos, 87, who has been summoned for a police interview, was a child survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary who later fled to Britain in the wake of the Soviet invasion in 1956.

A former Labour member, he resigned from the party in 2023 after its London office warned him not to speak at a Holocaust memorial event run by a banned group.

In his resignation letter, Kapos accused then party leader Keir Starmer, now the prime minister, of "intimidation, banning of discussion of some of the most vital political topics, disregard for the party’s own rules, and for natural justice, the drastic reduction of inner party democracy, extreme factionalism, lack of support for striking workers."

'The right to protest is under attack'

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell have already been questioned by the police over the protest.

Letters have also been issued to Stop the War coalition officers Lindsey German, Alex Kenny and Andrew Murray, as well as Friends of Al-Aqsa chair Ismail Patel.

'The days of silence and intimidation are gone'

 - The Crown star Khalid Abdalla

Met chief Mark Rowley told the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews the day after the January rally that the police had "used conditions on the protests more than we ever have done before", and that his team imposed "sharper and stronger conditions" on the organisers of the demonstration.

At the time Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski, a speaker at the rally, told MEE that the Met's handling of the protest was a "shambles", adding that he "and thousands of others have been smeared by claims that we forced our way through" the police cordon.

Crown star Abdalla warned on Monday that the "right to protest is under attack in this country and it requires us all to defend it."

He added: "While there is an alarming rise in attempts to censor voices that stand up for Palestine, even as it faces open calls for ethnic cleansing, it will not work.

"The days of silence and intimidation are gone."

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A Met Police spokesperson said: "As part of our ongoing investigation into alleged breaches of Public Order Act conditions on Saturday 18 January we have invited a further eight people to be interviewed under caution at a police station.

"While we are aware of names being attributed to those who have been invited for interview, we do not confirm the identity of anyone under investigation."

The Palestine Coalition, which organised the rally, said: "This apparently co-ordinated attack against the Palestine solidarity movement is endeavouring to halt public protest on the issue, through harassment of those involved in the movement, and through increasingly draconian restrictions on demonstrations.

"We demand that the Metropolitan Police halt any prosecutions or proceedings against those involved in this entirely peaceful protest.

"We further insist that the Metropolitan Police respects the right to protest and that it ceases to take instruction from those who are determined to back Israel's genocidal actions, to maintain British state support for them, and to drive our movement off the streets."