A man set fire to a police van – and then climbed onto it – in Leeds on Saturday 1 November in what local activists feared might have ended up being weaponised by the right wing and corporate media in an attempt to smear the anti-genocide, pro-Palestine protest movement:
Leeds sees multiple incidents
A man is said to have set fire to, and then climbed, a police van during the protest – but locals say he had only recently begun to appear at protests and seemed to be suffering from severe mental health issues. And they have queried how anyone could set fire to a police van and then climb it and wave around a Quran, all while police officers surrounded it.
Pro-Palestine activist @ani.says2 put out a video summarising the issues:
https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/snapins-ai_3756362958075971019.mp4
Bizarrely, however, while the far-right has avidly consumed and shared the incident, the ‘mainstream’ media has been weirdly quiet about it. At the time of writing, only a couple of local Yorkshire-based news outlets have covered it and the BBC News West Yorkshire website has linked to one of those in its ‘other local news’ section.
During the same protest, an Israel-supporting agitator – who had a baby with him – was restrained by police after allegedly physically attacking anti-genocide protesters, Despite this apparent violence and his continued aggression caught on video, West Yorkshire Police do not appear to have arrested the man and the incident has remained unreported by ‘mainstream’ media:
https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/snapins-ai_3756450146591505379.mp4
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
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