In a concerning sign of Britain’s eroding commitment to free expression, the advertising company London Lites —  under advisement from London’s Metropolitan Police —  broke their contract with the Israeli Embassy of the UK and theMissing Families Forum in London, and abruptly ended their billboard campaign, which had aimed to raise awareness about the 137 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza . 

The campaign was supposed to run for two weeks, across ten video billboards, from Brick Lane in East London, to White City in the North-West, and Bermondsey in South London. Each featured a bold red background, white block letters at the top reading “HOSTAGE,” the photograph and name of the hostage at the center, and the hashtag “#BringThemHomeNow” in white letters at the bottom. However, after just six days, London Lites violated their contract, and at once ceased running the videos, writing in an email to the campaign organizers:

“In response to an unusual volume of complaints from the public, we have made the exceptional decision to withdraw your advertisement with immediate effect. While we are strong advocates of freedom of speech and endeavor to minimize censorship, we acknowledge the remarkable level of reaction these posters have elicited. 

Our primary objective is not to provoke or distress our audience, and thus, we deemed the removal of the posters appropriate. We trust you appreciate that this decision was highly challenging, and we value your understanding and support.

We sincerely apologize for this disruption.”

In response, the Israeli Embassy told the Telegraph that they are considering legal action against the advertising firm.

Though London Lites is at direct fault for the cancellation, and will potentially bear any related legal costs, they at least had accepted the campaign, which many other advertising companies reportedly would not, and the problem goes beyond their own cowardice. Speaking with James Warrington and Fiona Parker of the Telegraph, a spokeswoman for London Lites clarified that their decision was directly informed by conversation with the Metropolitan Police and given their “community safety concerns,” the firm abruptly ended the campaign “on community cohesion grounds.”

As I wrote about in an earlier piece for the Sun, titled London’s Bias Police, London’s Metropolitan Police have not shown a simple ideological bias in handling pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters, but rather have shown a strong bias towards laziness, without any great concern for upholding free expression. And so, rather than issue a statement condemning any threats, investigating those who may have threatened violence, and ensuring this private business is able to safely continue the campaign they were paid to run, the police chose the easy way out, and encouraged the company bow to “the threats of an extreme minority in the UK,” as the Israeli embassy put it in their statement on X.

Though public displays in London of support for Palestinians have notably outnumbered competing rallies for Israel, the billboards in question were not about Zionism or the politics of the region. Rather, they were simply driven by the moral urgency of the return of these innocent hostages. They were a campaign of such obvious moral correctness that a rabid opposition to it can only come from antisemitism and extremism, as the average Brit would support hostages being freed from terrorists. Defending the rights of this campaign is an extremely low bar. As such, the failure of Metropolitan Police is all the more telling, and disturbing.