DUBAI: British actor and activist Khalid Abdalla, known for his portrayal of Dodi Fayed in “The Crown,” has been asked to attend a police interview in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest he attended in London in January this year.
In an Instagram post, the 44-year-old actor revealed that he received a letter from London’s Metropolitan Police on Thursday. He stated that others, including 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos, had also been “summoned” for interviews.
The matter concerns a demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which took place in Whitehall, London, on Jan. 18. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) protest was adjusted to be a static rally after police curtailed organisers’ plans for a march past the BBC, which critics said was also near a synagogue. A group of protesters marched towards London’s Trafalgar Square from Whitehall after the rally.
Abdalla, who also starred in the 2024 thriller “The Day of the Jackal,” noted that it “remains to be seen” whether he or the others will face charges.
He expressed concern over the state of protest rights in the UK, saying they are “under attack” and must be defended.
The actor also made a reference to “No Other Land,” a collaborative documentary made by Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers that won an Oscar this week, in his online statement.
“While there is an alarming rise in attempts to censor voices that stand up for Palestine, even as it faces open calls for ethnic cleansing, it will not work. The days of silencing and intimidation are gone. The stakes are too high, and as we can see today with ‘No Other Land’ winning at the Oscars, momentum is on the side of justice, and shared humanity,” he wrote.
“I will not be making further comment on the January 18 protest for legal reasons, for now, but in every other way, I will continue to put my energies towards the better world that we so clearly need, and which requires all of us to work together to turn into a reality,” he added.
Abdalla, born in the UK to Egyptian parents, has participated in multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrations and has used social media to call on Western nations to “stop arming Israel.”
He was also a signatory to the Artists for Palestine UK open letter to the BBC in February, criticising the corporation's decision to pull a documentary about children's lives in Gaza after it discovered its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
