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A railway supervisor has been accused of downplaying Hamas’ part in the October 7 attacks and threatening to kick a Jewish passenger out of a London station.
Video provided to Metro appears to show the Thameslink employee claiming the Israeli military was responsible for most of the deaths during October 7.
The staff member then appears to try to eject the Jewish man from Farringdon station after a confrontation over a pro-Palestine badge last Friday.
The Jewish man had complained to the Thameslink supervisor last Friday, unhappy that another staff member was wearing a badge that read ‘Palestine Solidarity’, alongside the initials for the RMT rail union.
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In a video shared with Metro, the supervisor defends the ‘human rights badge’ before saying that Israel is ‘slaughtering civilians’.
When asked about the ‘slaughter of Israelis on October 7th’, the railway staff member says the deaths were ‘Hannibal directed’ by the Israeli military’.
The ‘Hannibal Directive’ is an alleged IDF tactic of preventing the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by using heavy fire to stop the abductors, even if it may harm or kill those being taken.
When the Jewish passenger calls his claim, ‘absolute nonsense’, the Thameslink supervisor says, ‘it is time you leave the station’ and moves towards him.
The staff member said the passenger was harassing him and his colleagues, which the man denied as he refused to leave platform.
The Thameslink representative then went on to claim that Israel’s Prime Minister had been warned about the attacks a month beforehand but had deliberately failed to act.
When asked by the passenger if he thought most of the Israeli casualties on October 7th were killed by Israelis, the supervisor replied ‘yes’.
He claimed: ‘How do you explain all those cars and vans that were blown up if all that Hamas had were small arms?’
The passenger then told the supervisor that ‘Hamas had RPGs’
The confrontation came just days after the third anniversary of October 7, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages, sparking years of conflict in the Middle East.
A senior staff member then intervened and ended the dispute.
The manager told the passenger that he agreed that railway staff should not ‘display political badges’ but said they should not ‘take abuse’, which the passenger denied he was giving out.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has now written to Thameslink chief executive John Whitehurst demanding an investigation into both employees and asking whether political badges are permitted under the company’s uniform rules.
The legal group warned that the alleged behaviour could amount to harassment under the Equality Act 2010, which protects passengers against certain forms of discrimination and harassment.
A UKLFI spokesperson said: ‘Jewish passengers should be able to travel on Britain’s railways without being subjected to offensive conspiracy theories about the massacre of Israelis on 7 October, or threatened with expulsion from a station for questioning a political badge.
‘Railway staff are there to serve passengers, not to promote political causes or subject customers to hostile political lectures. It is particularly alarming that the employee who allegedly behaved in this way claimed to be a supervisor.
‘Thameslink must investigate this incident urgently, make clear that such behaviour is unacceptable and ensure that Jewish and Israeli passengers can use its services without fear of harassment or discrimination.’
Thameslink said they are investigating the video.
Their spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of the allegations and investigating.
‘We are committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for everyone travelling on our network, and we take any allegations of this nature extremely seriously.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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