Police seized a placard bearing a swastika at Saturday’s pro-Palestine demonstration in London suggesting Israel was carrying out a Nazi-style genocide.

Two officers challenged one of the demonstrators after he was spotted carrying a small handwritten cardboard poster that drew a timeline between the German mass extermination of Jews in the 1940s to the Israeli bombing of Gaza this year.

The Nazi swastika had been drawn alongside the “1940s holocaust” section and then a Star of David from the Israeli flag was etched next to the “2023 holocaust”.

A video sent to The Telegraph showed the protester complaining that “freedom of speech” should allow him to draw the comparison. However, the officers insisted “you can’t display the Nazi symbol in public”.

The protester complained to police that they were “shutting my mouth, shutting my voice”, adding that his poster stated “a fact”.

The officers insisted that the handheld poster had to be confiscated before one onlooker added: “This is worse than the Soviet republic in the 1970s.”

As the card was handed over the demonstrator added that police had “taken my speech – it’s freedom of speech.”

The placard was removed and the man was allowed to continue marching.