A Jewish protester was arrested by the Met Police after he briefly held a placard satirising a Hezbollah terrorist leader, The Telegraph can reveal.

The British man, who has asked to remain anonymous for his safety, was detained and charged last September over a cartoon which showed Hasan Nasrallah, the Lebanese terror chief, with a pager and the words “beep, beep, beep”.

The placard satirised a targeted Israeli attack, dubbed Operation Grim Beeper, in which explosives in pagers and walkie-talkies killed 42 people, mostly Hezbollah terrorists. Nasrallah survived but was killed in an airstrike a week later.

During questioning, police repeatedly asked the man – who was part of a counter demonstration against a pro-Palestine march – if he believed the image would offend “clearly pro-Hezbollah and anti-Israel” activists.

Hezbollah is a terror group which is proscribed in the UK.

The decision by police to allow pro-Palestine demonstrators to march through London since the October 7 massacre, including areas with high Jewish populations and near synagogues, has been highly contentious.

The man’s case is the latest in a string of heavy-handed police responses to lawful expression.

Last year, The Telegraph reported how columnist Allison Pearson was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests.

The Telegraph also uncovered the case of Julian Foulkes, a retired special constable, who was wrongly cautioned by Kent Police for warning about the threat of anti-Semitism in Britain.

The latest case has prompted condemnation from senior MPs and peers on both sides of the House.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said it was an example of “two-tier policing in action”.

He told The Telegraph: “In recent times, the police have failed to act when confronted with protesters calling for jihad and intifada in London. Yet this man was apparently arrested because he might have offended supporters of a banned terrorist organisation.

“This is two-tier policing in action. The law is rightly clear that supporting banned terrorist groups, inciting violence, inciting racial hatred or harassing people is illegal. Beyond that, free speech applies to everyone.

“The police sometimes turn a blind eye when applying the law might be difficult, yet over-police at other times. The law should be applied equally to all, robustly and without fear or favour. That is not what happened here.”