Police summon famous Netflix actor over controversial London rally

Khalid Abdalla, the British actor known for portraying Dodi Fayed in Netflix’s “The Crown,” stepped into a storm of controversy on January 18, addressing a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in London’s Whitehall—a gathering that erupted into chaos and drew police scrutiny for its ties to Hamas.

On February 27, the Metropolitan Police summoned Abdalla, 44, for a “formal interview under caution,” alleging he breached Public Order Act conditions during the event, held a day after a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold. The summons has cast a harsh light on Abdalla’s vocal support for a movement shadowed by Hamas’s legacy of murder, rape, and pillaging.

The rally, meant as a static show of solidarity, unraveled when some attendees—Abdalla potentially among them—smashed through a police line toward Trafalgar Square, triggering over 70 arrests. Of those, 21 face charges, while eight, including Abdalla, were called for interviews as the investigation unfolds.

Police have not labeled it a “pro-Hamas” event—direct support for the group, banned as a terrorist organization in the UK since 2001, risks prosecution under the Terrorism Act—but the context is inescapable. Hamas’s October 7 rampage saw families slaughtered, women assaulted, and homes looted, a brutality that left Israel reeling and Jewish communities worldwide on edge. Abdalla’s presence, and his celebration of the ceasefire’s architects, has fueled outrage among those who see it as tacit endorsement of that violence.

On Instagram, Abdalla struck back, framing the police action as an assault on protest rights. “The right to protest is under attack in this country,” he wrote, citing an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, Stephen Kapos, also summoned, as proof of overreach. “While there is an alarming rise in attempts to censor voices that stand up for Palestine,” he added, “it will not work.” The Palestine Solidarity Campaign decried a “coordinated attack” by authorities, alleging harassment to stifle dissent. Yet Abdalla’s history—attending rallies, signing letters like one slamming the BBC for axing a Gaza documentary—ties him to a cause that, for many, cannot be untangled from Hamas’s bloodstained hands.

That day in Whitehall, as tens of thousands rallied, Abdalla spoke of cautious hope for the ceasefire’s first phase—a deal brokered after 15 months of war that killed thousands and displaced more. But the event’s descent into disorder, with police lines breached, mirrored a broader tension gripping Britain since October 7. Jewish students and families, still shaken by Hamas’s atrocities—rape victims’ testimonies, charred homes—have watched such protests with growing alarm, their safety a quiet undercurrent in London’s streets. The Public Order Act, tightened post-2023 to curb disruption, now snares figures like Abdalla, Corbyn, and McDonnell, all linked to the same rally.

Hamas’s shadow looms large. The UK’s terrorism laws leave no room for celebrating the group—past cases, like a 2024 conviction for a Hamas headband at a protest, prove the line is thin. Abdalla faces no charges yet; an interview under caution is a probe, not a sentence. But his defiance, paired with his platform, has sharpened a divide: supporters see a champion of free speech, while critics—including Jewish voices—hear an echo of the October 7 horrors in his words. The police, meanwhile, focus on order breached, not ideology professed.

For Abdalla, whose screen roles have traced tragedy, this is a real-world crucible. The ceasefire he hailed came after a war sparked by Hamas’s savagery—a fact inescapable as he awaits questioning. In a city wrestling with expression and security, his summons marks a welcome step in the fight against Jew hatred which plagues the UK.

Jewish Breaking News contributed to this article.