POLICE forces are not protecting Jews when they target protesters who legitimately oppose Israel’s war crimes, campaigners have warned.

Jewish Voice for Liberation (JVL) has hit out at the Met and Greater Manchester police chiefs, who have said protesters who chant “globalise the intifada” will be arrested.

Defending the peace marches seen across Britain since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, JVL said the chant is not one regularly heard at the mass London demonstrations.

The group said: “If it is used as a taunt to individuals or groups of Jews it may amount to harassment, but otherwise it should be accepted as what it literally means — a call to make resistance to Israeli crimes global.”

But it said the Jewish Bloc, which proudly proclaims its Jewish identity, has always been prepared to challenge any anti-semitism it has encountered on the demonstrations.

The group insisted that it has very rarely, if ever, encountered anything it needs to respond to.

JVL also took issue with the conflation of pro-Palestine activism and the rise of anti-semitic hate crimes, claiming “legitimate peaceful protest” should not be confused with what is “correctly illegal activity.”

“It unfairly casts doubt on the intent of those, including the substantial Jewish Bloc, expressing their horror at the continuing genocide in Gaza and the complicity of our government in it,” the group added.

Hours after Sir Mark Rowley and Sir Stephen Watson’s respective announcements, the Met detained two people for alleged racially aggravated public order offences, for “slogans involving call for intifada.”

Dozens of protesters were removed by police at a demonstration in central London on Wednesday evening, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in support of Palestine Action protesters on hunger strike while awaiting trial.