The Stop Silencing Palestine webinar of Friday 22nd November was a star performance.
I have summarised and commented upon it below to the best of my ability, but for a more authoritative view you may watch this 100-minute video:
It was moderated by Asim Qureshi, and featured various pro-Palestinian journalists and activists, including Natalie Strecker, Sarah Wilkinson, Asa Winstanley, Tony Greenstein and Richard Medhurst. We also heard from Huda Ammori (of Palestine Action), Clare Rogers (the mother of one of the Filton 10), Andrew Feinstein and Les Levidow.
The named journalists and activists had experienced arrest under Britain’s Terrorism legislation, notably the Terrorism Act of 2000 which provides broad powers to prosecute people, notably on grounds that they are inviting support for a proscribed organisation like Hamas.
Natalie Strecker is a former Ecumenical Accompanier who lives in Jersey and describes herself as a middle-aged peace activist. Her difficulties started with local people trying to close down a grief circle, where people got together in a Church Hall to grieve for Palestinian deaths – an activity claimed to be antisemitic! And then on 15th November, at 6.30 am, Natalie was arrested under Terrorism Law based on a factual statement she had made, bundled off in the back of a police van and held for 13 hours.
The member of this group who was treated worst was Sarah Wilkinson, someone who had been active as a reporter since the First Intifada and was a member of Palestine Action. She describes how she was arrested in the night by 16 men in balaclavas and without any identification, forced into a van, given no food and drink, and deprived of sleep. She found the experience so terrifying that there was an hour when she thought she was going to die. In common with other arrestees, the police confiscated a range of equipment and personal possessions without providing a receipt.
The officers concerned ransacked Sarah's house and even managed to desecrate her mother's ashes. All this begs questions as to why they behaved in this way, and under whose guidance. It appears that they were trying to terrorise and humiliate her.
Clare Rogers spoke on behalf of her incarcerated daughter Zoe and two other members of the Filton 10. Counter-terrorism police had raided and arrested the 10 on Tuesday 20th November 6 am, in coordinated attacks across the country, apparently in response to the over £1 million of damages that Palestine Action allegedly caused Elbit’s Filton-based R&D hub on August 6th. They had destroyed quadcopter drones of the type used to kill people in Gaza.
The police again behaved violently, knocking down doors and ransacking their homes from which they expelled members and roommates for up to 3 days. Nine of them were currently being held in solitary confinement for more than 82 hours. Despite being arrested under the Terrorism Act, the ten were all charged with non-terror offences including aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder.
Huda Ammori spoke of Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, who was arrested in November last year after supporters of Israel had complained about speeches he had made.
Barnard is being charged under the Terrorism Act, Section 12.1.a, but significantly the charges were not made until August of this year when Keir Starmer’s new Attorney General, Richard Hermer, was in place. According to Huda, three key players are behind Government’s legal manoeuvres against Palestine Action:
Richard Hermer himself, who went on a low-key trip to Israel (during the current genocide) shortly after being appointed Attorney General
Hermer’s deputy, Sarah Sackman, an ideological Zionist who was the Vice-President of the Jewish Labour Movement, and
The Director of the Attorney General’s office, a civil servant called Doug Wilson. He was instrumental in setting up meetings between the Israeli Embassy and the Attorney General in 2022 and 2023 when the Embassy was (illegally) lobbying to interfere in the Palestine Action court cases.
Andrew Feinstein spoke partly from his South African perspective and made an interesting assertion. He said that Margaret Thatcher had suggested to the Apartheid regime of South Africa that it kill Nelson Mandela (Andrew’s former boss) while he was held as a captive.
What is motivates the players in this drama?
All those targeted in the raids seem idealistic people prepared to make considerable sacrifices in the interest of human welfare, and to end the mass slaughter going on in the Middle East. I have not seen the evidence the police have marshalled against them yet find the idea that they are aiding and abetting terrorism implausible. On the contrary, they want to end state terror that is being wielded against the people of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
The basic objective of the UK authorities seems to be to intimidate and silence these and other activists by a combination of arbitrary arrest, rough handling, restrictive bail conditions and the threat of re-arrest.
As I noted earlier, even when people are charged with lesser offences, the Terrorism Act is often used as a cover for authoritarian police behaviour, as it allows them to hold people for much longer periods. However, the full force of the Terrorism Act may be applied to certain individuals including Richard Barnard and Richard Medhurst. Medhurst, who had been arrested on a plane by six officers, said he could be charged, convicted and imprisoned for up to 14 years.
Perhaps the most compelling speaker was Clare Rogers (the mother of Zoe) who said that the Government had made a big mistake in using the Terrorist Act because it had radicalised the Mums. She also highlighted the idealism of the young protesters, people she describes as being driven by love of community and humanity, and who have chosen to throw themselves into the cogs of Keir Starmer’s war machine.
A powerful commentary from Tony Greenstein
It is worth listening to Tony's commentary which starts 26 mins into the video. I have tried to summarise it as follows. He drew our attention to the police’s twisted and distorted interpretation of the Law that involves criminalising people for expressing opinions or beliefs in favour of a proscribed organisation (opinions and beliefs that may indeed be true), and for encouraging others to support such an organisation.
It is not doing this, says Tony, to ensure compliance with the Law, but to further Britain’s alliance with Israel and the USA. At the same time, the police had shown no interest in implementing the International Criminal Court Act of 2001 which makes participation in, aiding, or being auxiliary to a genocide a criminal offence. If they did, they would feel the anger of Keir Starmer and his associates, who are themselves complicit.
Tony urged us to counter this by building as broad an alliance as possible in defence of ancient democratic liberties like freedom of speech, and of association, that are being threatened by anti-terrorism laws (the idea of building a broad alliance is very much CAMPAIN’s thinking). Tony felt we needed a legal case with which to turn the tables on Liberal England that has jack-knifed into the authoritarian right that Starmer represents so adequately.
In the same vein, Huda Ammori advocated going on the front foot and exposing the improper Israeli influence in legal cases against Palestine Action.
The whole tone of the meeting was one of unity and defiance. I think they deserve our support.
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