Jewish anti-Zionist arrested by police in ‘fishing expedition’ in December still not charged, but computer and hard drive still not handed back to him
Left-wing Jewish activist Tony Greenstein is taking the police to court this week in a bid to secure the return of a computer, hard drive and other electronics seized by anti-terror police last December when they raided his home and arrested him for a single tweet commenting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Four months later, Greenstein has still not been charged with any offence.
Greenstein, a well-known anti-Zionist prominent in the fight for Palestinian freedom and human rights, explained:
Just before Xmas I was arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 in a dawn raid on my flat. My ‘offence’ was not planning a terrorist act but the tweet below which it was suspected was supporting Hamas. In 2021 the political wing of Hamas was proscribed.
After nearly 4 months I have still not been charged and I am under ‘investigation’.
The Police removed my computers, mobile and just about any electronic device they could find.
At the two interviews I had, and contrary to legal advice I gave full answers to their questions, I was questioned solely about the tweet below, two posts on my blog and a speech on Youtube.
This is clearly and obviously a case of the Police using ‘Terrorism’ as a means of suppressing free speech in support of the Palestinians in Gaza undergoing genocide. The Police could, if they so wished, charge Cameron and Sunak with aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 ss.52/53.
However as we know the Police are increasingly acting as the enforcement agency for the government in their desire to suppress Palestinian activism.
The theft of my computers has had an enormous effect on e.g. my ability to comply with my statutory duty to keep accounts for the charity of which I’m a trustee, the Brighton Trust and many other effects. I have had to purchase new computers to continue to e.g. publish my blog and undertake necessary work not least having access to the medical records of my son who is autistic.
Although many files were saved on the cloud there are others which I can’t access.
I have no idea whether or not the Police will eventually charge me but one thing is clear. They do not need my computers to charge me as my views are all in the public domain and accessible on The Internet.
What the Police are engaged in is an intelligence gathering exercise, a fishing expedition.
My solicitor advises me that the action I have brought to force the Police to return my property is almost unheard of. I do not have great hopes that in a case such as this the Magistrates will defy the Police and do what is just and equitable. Nonetheless I believe that I should make the attempt. If unsuccessful I will take it to appeal as what the Police are doing is stringing out their ‘investigation’ and in the meanwhile punishing me even if I am not prosecuted.
It would be of enormous help, since this is a highly political case, for there to be a full public gallery and maybe a demonstration outside the courts.
At a time when the Police are even arresting the ‘wrong sort of rabbi’ for ‘inciting antisemitism’ (burning an Israeli flag – thus equating Jews with Israel) we must resist what is the road to a police state.
If you are free this Thursday 2 pm you I invite you to attend the court. I cannot guarantee it will even be heard, as last time it was adjourned but your presence might also be of help in that regard.
So if you live in the Brighton area and aren’t otherwise engaged please come.
Greenstein’s case has been listed for 2pm on Thurs 18 April at Brighton Magistrates’ Court. Supporters able to attend should get there early:
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
What possible legitimate reason could the police have for holding on to Tony’s computers and mobile etc for such a long time? None at all of course. And how long does it take the police to determine if there are grounds to charge him? Why would it even take a week or two, let alone four months and counting.
And ditto for Craig Murray, only in HIS case it’s now SIX months and counting. It’s just bare-faced vindictive sadism, and no doubt with instructions from above to drag it out indefinately in both cases.
Unless it’s something like the ‘deeply-authoritarian’ Policing Bill which spews out reams of autocratic regulations – and which institutionally-fascistic organisations like the police and (post-covid) the NHS rigorously resource and religiously enforce – the police are normally unbelievably sloppy and careless.
Tony’s bad treatment by the Police here is directly due to the Police and Crime Act – which will soon look reasonable and sensible once the wretched Starmer unleashes his personal set of favourite fascism-enabling reforms and projects.
Im a big supporter of Tony. However I worked in child sbuse all my life and I kniw for a fact that forensic downloads can sometimes take 18 months depending on where u live. I only hope a court case will force them to give up.
It takes less than an hour to clone even the biggest hard drive and with the AI-powered search engines of nowadays minutes to a couple of hours max to check into every bite on that cloned drive. The reason it takes so long is chronic underfunding and that’s it. Employ enough technicians and the backlog will be cleared in no time but of course, Torys don’t want to pay for anything except what’s in it for them…
Geordie Gallloway, JC and Claudia Webbe sat together in Parliament today
Methinks
The sky is black with the wings of chickens coming home to roost
Yeah but the lodesst one should shout out his reversal of his scam support. Donncha think!we will need it for when they try again they are a bit busy at the moment
Sorry to divert Greenstein discussion – but Claudia Webbe was also libelled
on an “Any Questions” broadcast 2 years ago on July 1st 2022
when Tory MP Richard Holden accused her of making the same
threat. I objected to the BBC and after a delay – they said there was no
need for an apology because they could have no idea of what was
going to be said before they broadcast the program which was live.
They cut the libel out of the recording and announced that it had been
edited but gave no indication as to why .. So far as I know no-one apologised
to Claudia and the Tory MP got way with it .. and the BBC weazled out of
any consideration for Claudia, who had been shamefully treated.
To my knowledge there has been no reporting of the full story by the MSM
so good for Skwawkie for doing so!
It’s not only in Britain that the police are abusing their powers to shut down support for Palestine.
JVL reports that in Germany there are similar tactics being used to shut down free speech in favour of Palestine.
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/pleas-for-humanity-and-justice-the-german-state-wants-to-silence/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=today-on-the-jvl-blog-newsletter-total-articles-for-you_1
As professor Michael Hudson details here……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNu_OGbqyWk&t=14s
….the reason for shutting down debate in the West is to ensure the complete undermining of all international law and norms in favour of the chaos and anarchy of the unwritten ‘rules’ of the the Collective West’s ‘Rules Based International Order’ (we make the rules, you obey the orders).
“The genocide that we are seeing today is the explicit policy of Israel’s founders: the idea of “a land without a people” means a land without non-Jewish people. They were to be driven out – starting even before the official founding of Israel, in the first Nakba, the Arab holocaust.
Two Israeli Prime Ministers were members of the Stern Gang of terrorists. They escaped from their British jail and joined to found Israel.
What we are seeing today is the Final Solution to this plan. It also dovetails into U.S. desires to control the Middle East and its oil reserves. For U.S. diplomacy, the Middle East IS (in caps) oil. And ISIS is part of America’s foreign legion since it was first organized in Afghanistan to fight the Russians……
……“As I understand it, what the U.S. is doing with Israel is a dress rehearsal for it to move on to Iran and the South China Sea. As you know, there is no Plan B in American strategy for a very good reason: If anyone criticize Plan A, they’re considered not to be a team player (or even Putin’s Puppet), so critics have to leave when they see that they won’t be promoted. That’s why U.S. strategists won’t stop and re-think what they’re doing.””
———————————————–
Also covered here by Pepe Escobar:
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/04/15/the-gaza-genocide-as-explicit-policy-michael-hudson-names-all-names/
“The U.S. aim of all this is to end the rule of international law as represented by the UN. It is to be replaced by the U.S. ‘rules-based order,’ with no rules published.
The intention is to make the U.S. immune to any opposition to its policies based on legal principles of international law or local laws. A totally free hand – chaos.
U.S. diplomats have looked forward and seen that the rest of the world is seeing to withdraw from the U.S. and European NATO orbit.
To cope with this irreversible movement, the U.S. is trying to de-tooth it by wiping away all remaining traces of the international rules that underlay the UN’s founding, and indeed the Westphalian principle back in 1648 of non-interference in the affairs of other countries.
The actual effect, as usual, is just the opposite of what the U.S. intended. The rest of the world is being forced to create its own New UN, along with a new IMF, new World Bank, new International Court at the Hague and other organizations controlled by the U.S..
So the world’s protest against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank – don’t forget the West Bank – is the emotional and moral catalyst to creating a new multipolar geopolitical order for the Global Majority.””
wow “the final solution”of the zionists.
I’ll have to did out some more Michael /Hudson. Thanks Dave
qwertboi,
Hudson’s main focus and body of work – which is extensive – might be described, arguably, as comparing and contrasting the efficacy of the two main social organising paradigms. Both contemporary and historically.
This piece, published on the ‘naked capitalism’ site in July 2022…..
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/07/michael-hudson-from-junk-economics-to-a-false-view-of-history-where-western-civilization-took-a-wrong-turn.html
…..provides as reasonable introduction as any to Hudson’s geo-political, economic and social focus in this regard.
Though there is a larger trove of articles on Hudson’s own web site.
His most recent publish tome “The Collapse of Antiquity” – the second book of a trilogy yet to be completed – provides a compelling case as to where the Collective West is heading and is well worth the money.