Man who confronted Al Jazeera journalists was Met Police special constable

A man who confronted a team of journalists working for Al Jazeera during an altercation after the Golders Green ambulance attacks was a volunteer Metropolitan Police officer.

The crew of journalists were reporting on an arson attack which targeted Hatzola ambulances - a Jewish community-run service - on Monday when they were confronted by a group of people telling them to leave the area.

One of the individuals has been identified as David Soffer, a Met Police special constable, as first reported by Declassified UK then confirmed by the BBC. He was seen calling one of the team "you donkey, you dog" in Arabic.

The Met has referred the incident to its professional standards team for assessment.

Videos from the scene show a group of people from the Jewish community shouting: "Go home" and "Al Jazeera off our streets".

Reporters from the Press Association also heard the journalists called "terrorist sympathisers".

Soffer, who is also a technology businessman, then arrived and told them to "go back to Qatar".

In Arabic, he continued: "Go from here you donkey... go from here you donkey, you dog".

He then called one of the team a dog again and, in Hebrew, he and one of the Al Jazeera staff then call each other donkeys.

At one stage, Soffer warned another person next to him to not be violent. When he was told to calm down, he insisted he was calm.

A female reporter told Soffer "shame on you" after she believed he suggested that she was an antisemite. He told her he could define his own racism.

Soffer then told them no Jewish person was going to hurt the team but no one was going to talk to them.

BBC News has contacted Soffer and Al Jazeera for comment.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it was aware of the footage showing the verbal altercation between locals and journalists.

"Freedom of the press is important and journalists must be able to do their job without being subject to intimidation or harassment.

"Officers did intervene but we recognise that there was an extended period where the journalists were put in a difficult situation which led them to leave the area.

"We will be reviewing the footage to identify whether any offences were committed."

The force added it was aware that an off-duty serving Met special constable was involved and said the matter has been referred to the Department of Professional Standards for assessment.

Special constables are volunteer police officers with the same powers, responsibilities and uniform as a regular officer.

Soffer has since removed "special constable" from his LinkedIn page.

There is strong opposition to Al Jazeera among many in the Jewish community and in Israel.

The Israeli government has accused it of being a "mouthpiece for Hamas" and voted to shut it down in 2024.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also accused it of "actively participating in the October 7 massacre and inciting against Israel Defence Forces soldiers."

Al Jazeera said at the time that Israel's actions in Gaza were a "criminal act... in contravention of international and human rights law" and "vehemently rejected" the Israeli allegations.

Four Hatzola ambulances in the car park of a synagogue in Golders Green were set alight in the early hours of Monday, in an incident being treated as an antisemitic hate crime.

Two men, British nationals aged 47 and 45, were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life but have now been released on bail until April.

Although the case is not being classed as a terror incident, the Met said the investigation is currently being led by counter-terror officers.