Scotland Yard has been accused of “two-tier” policing after a Palestine Action protester avoided police intervention after dressing as a Holocaust concentration camp inmate. Serial bandwagon jumper Maria Gallastegui was seen dressed in the outfit with the star of David replaced with a moon and crescent at a recent protest, which has been blasted as “racially aggravated” by Jewish groups and MPs.

Ms Gallastegui, 66, has been a full-time activist for 20 years and has participated in protests on a variety of subjects, with the potential proscribing of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation becoming her latest cause. The lack of police intervention over the hurtful and offensive outfit has been contrasted with the response to the burning of the Quran outside the Turkish Consulate in London which saw a man prosecuted and fined for a religiously aggravated public order offence. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said: “We appear to have a two-tier blasphemy law in this country, which protects Islam from offensive references but not others.”

Palestine Action’s latest stunt left them facing being classed as terrorists (Image: Palestine Action/PA Wire

Free speech activists have labelled prosecutions for burning religious artefacts as a curtailing of free speech and akin to a blasphemy law.

Alex Hearn, of Labour Against Anti-Semitism, told the Telegraph: “Dressing as a concentration camp inmate, with the yellow patch replaced by an Islamic symbol, has caused many people upset.

“This religiously aggravated performance appropriated and distorted the Holocaust and was clearly designed to cause distress.

“It’s shocking that while police act swiftly on less obvious public offences this blatant display went unchallenged at the heart of our democracy.”

Ms Gallastegui is a prominent face on the activist seen having been arrested on multiple occasions protesting on a variety of topics.

She has previously damaged a wall at Belmarsh prison in support of Julian Assange, lived in a tent outside parliament to protest against a law change to restrict protests in front of the Commons and Lords and spent a night sleeping in a tent over council plans to fell it to make way for new houses.

At Monday’s protest, she was pictured carrying a placard that said: “We are all Palestine Action,” a placard that could become a criminal offence in the future.

The government is considering proscribing the group as a terrorist organisation following on from last week’s latest stunt which saw members sabotage vital RAF planes at Brize Norton.

Palestine Action protesters confront police (Image: Lucy North/PA Wire)

Ms Gallastegui issued a statement, saying: “Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp was liberated by the British Army in 1945 following WW2. The world was shocked and horrified at the appalling sight of the starving, emaciated prisoners and the piles of decaying bodies in their stripped uniforms.

“Afterwards, the international community affirmed never to let this happen again. ‘Never Again’. Fast forward to now, and the same scenario is being carried out again – but this time the concentration camp and the people being deliberately starved are the people of Gaza.

“This is a history lesson for now, and by no means is it meant to be anti-Semitic. Changing the symbols of the yellow star to the crescent and star is simply to illustrate that point.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “The team that investigates public order offences was made aware of this individual following Monday’s protest, and an investigation is ongoing.

“Officers were informed of the incident outside Parliament, but the individual had left the area by that time. Our investigation continues.”