Home Office refuses to say police must not criminalise symbols of support for Palestine and opposition to genocide
Since the proscription of direct action protest group Palestine Action (PA) by the Starmer government, UK police forces have begun threatening peaceful anti-genocide protesters unconnected with PA with arrest under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of supporting a proscribed, or banned, organisation – despite not displaying anything relating to PA, but simply for items expressing support for the Palestinian people or opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The phenomenon was first seen in footage of two Kent Police officers harassing a Canterbury woman and threatening to arrest her ‘on suspicion’ under the anti-terror legislation because “support for freedom of Gaza…Israel genocide and all that” is grounds for suspicion of support for PA.
An offence carrying a potential prison sentence of up to fourteen years.
This misuse of the proscription of a specific organisation against general protest and comment appears to be spreading, with at least one other force appearing to take the same position that pro-Palestinian comment is grounds for suspicion of a terror offence of supporting a proscribed group.
But that position has already been ruled unlawful by the High Court, with judge Justice Chamberlain stating that
It will remain lawful for the claimant and other persons who were members of PA prior to proscription to continue to express their opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and elsewhere, including by drawing attention to what they regard as Israel’s genocide and other serious violations of international law. They will remain legally entitled to do so in private conversations, in print, on social media and at protests.
Skwawkbox put the judge’s ruling to Kent Police, pointing out that Chamberlain expressly said that such protest and speech remains a legal right and that this rules out lawfully using such protest, paraphernalia and comment as grounds for restriction, much less arrest as a potential terror offender. The force was unrepentant. A Kent Police spokesperson told Skwawkbox refusing to engage with the judge’s ruling on what protesters can do, carry, wear or say and that:
Under the Terrorism Act it is a criminal offence to carry or display items that may arouse reasonable suspicion that an individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation such as Palestine Action.
The fact that pro-Palestine items are, by a legal ruling, not ‘items that may arouse reasonable suspicion’ of any such thing was ignored. But it’s not only the police doing the ignoring.
Given the disparity between the police’s actions and the legal ruling – and the apparent spread of the police approach – Skwawkbox contacted the Home Office for comment on whether the government agrees with the police and its methods. A Home Office spokesman said he would only provide a statement issued by [right-wing] Security Minister Dan Jarvis and that “We will not be going beyond the ministerial statement.”
That statement reads:
Freedom to protest lawfully is a cornerstone of our democracy. Palestine Action’s proscription does not and must not interfere with people’s legitimate right to express support for Palestinians.
None of that statement precludes police deciding that, as in the Kent case, saying Israel is committing genocide or that Gaza should be free is not ‘legitimate expression of support’ but instead grounds for arrest on suspicion of a terror offence. This was pointed out to the press spokesman, who understood the issue and agreed to pass it up the chain, but warned that any clarification or amendment was extremely unlikely.
Skwawkbox pointed out that if the Home Office refuses to say that wearing the symbols of Palestinian freedom, or holding banners or placards with anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian wording, may not be used by police as grounds for arrest and potential prosecution, then inevitably this policing approach will chill and restrict legitimate rights to protest and expression that a High Court judge has already ruled must not be affected by the proscription of one group.
The response remained the same – and indeed no such clarification had been provided at the time of writing.
Nor does Jarvis’s record in his role give any cause for confidence on the matter. Last October, when asked by an MP to confirm that journalists would not be pursued or prosecuted under anti-terror legislation, Jarvis refused – and went further, telling her sinisterly that:
there is no absolute defence of journalism under CT legislation
and that “any support” the government thinks it can find in anyone’s comments will be pursued. Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which Jarvis acknowledged as applying in the UK, not only places a duty on governments not to interfere in journalistic freedom but goes further, placing an obligation on governments to ‘take positive measures to protect journalistic freedom:
The Court found that Article 10 required the State to take positive measures to protect… journalistic freedom of expression.
The UK government is waging a ‘lawfare’ war on journalists and others, many of them Jewish, who speak out against Israel’s crimes, a war that now extends to treating ordinary symbols of Palestinian humanity and freedom, and legitimate free speech against Israel’s crimes, as grounds for arrest and potential prosecution. It has been slammed repeatedly by the United Nations and its human rights experts for this war.
As legal and human rights experts had predicted before it happened, the proscription of Palestine Action can be used as a sledgehammer against pro-Palestinian protest generally. And, up to now, is being so used while the government declines to rein in police or provide clarity about what they can criminalise – while Israel continues its mass slaughter and starvation of Palestinian civilians, especially women and children.
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We can but hope that one day Bibi will face justice.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has firmly rejected Israel’s bid to annul arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, simultaneously dismissing Israel’s request to suspend the ongoing investigation into alleged crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ruling, issued by Pre-Trial Chamber I on Wednesday, reaffirms the court’s jurisdiction and signals a significant legal setback for the Israeli leadership.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/denied-icc-upholds-arrest-warrants-for-netanyahu-gallant-in-genocide-probe/
Yet not a peep about the keef clampdown on lawful dissent against the actions of bibi
Not a dicky-bird about keef’s ambiguity over whether the rodent would be arrested and handed over to face trial, should the rodent ever set foot on these shores.
It’s isn’t ambiguity when it’s keef, though, is it, wee hypocritical, nonce-defending, anti-socialist blert?
Nah. Only corbyn’s guilty of ‘ambiguity’ whereas keefs only guilty of infallibility.
…And allowing kids to be harmed.
Just fuck off. Forever.
“We can but hope that one day Bibi will face justice.”
Such a statement is a general given.
However, the issue is far wider than one individual and takes in those sponsoring, aiding abetting and providing cover in all its form for the criminal actions of that individual as well as using lawfare to stop any opposition to those crimes AND any actions to bring ALL the criminals involved to account.
Consequently, as Toffee implies, your statement, Billy, is nothing other than empty meaningless rhetoric. A vacuous and valueless noise designed by its very obvious lies of omission to change the subject.
Article 25 of the Rome Statute……..
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf
….is very clear:
“3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:
(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or
through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally
responsible;
(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs
or is attempted;
(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or
otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including
providing the means for its commission:
(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission
of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such
contribution shall be intentional and shall either:
(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal
purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the
commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or
(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the
crime;
(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to
commit genocide;
(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its
execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because
of circumstances independent of the person’s intentions. However, a person
who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the
completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute
for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily
gave up the criminal purpose.”
In regard to the issue of UK police action which is the subject of this Skwawkbox article, it would seem reasonable to observe that paragraph (d) (above) along with its two sub-paragraphs may be of relevance in that preventing people from taking any action aimed at preventing the Genocide does, by definition contribute “to the commission or attempted commission of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose.”
The group with the “common purpose” in this case being the police.
It should not be beyond the means of enterprising elements within the wider protest movement to provide some A5 laminated cards containing this section of the Rome Statute to hand out to the police when harrassed.
Worth 20 mins.
https://youtu.be/Hd_Nl6KKVsk?si=u1u4XU8ovSFl3RvX
A UK doctor who visits Gaza to work, has just been on the Today programme. His testimony suggests now that the IDF have a “game” where each day they target different parts of the body. Head one day, stomach another young boys testicles at other times. This is as sick as it can possibly get. Many of the bullets they use come from the UK. (But we only ever hear about F35 parts “because they are part of a global supply chain” This country and this country’s politicians are fully complicit in human rights abuses and war crimes. When Blair wasn’t sent to the Hague, they now all believe that they are immune from retribution for their callous disregard for the law. Meanwhile others comment on two daft blokes who chopped down a tree should have got more than 10 years ……….. What a twisted world. One tree worth more than hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians!
Somebody should tell the pigs that Zionist terrorists killed PCs and I thought they had a thing against cop killers. Hamas and Palestine Action, by contrast, have not…
And whilst we’re at it, “only obeying orders” is no defence against war crimes.
Dave they literally bombed the English embassy in Rome and tried to bomb london but it failed to detonate properly. I have original newspapers from the era. But this website Oxford soldiers museum is very good with those facts. 784 British people dead. https://www.sofo.org.uk/obli-stories-palestine/
J – Powerful stuff!
784 British soldiers & staff murdered by extreme Zionist groups in Palestine between 1945 & 1948.
(Oxford Soldiers Museum).
Yet at some of the 80 or so marches for Palestine we have had around the country we get a tiny number of Zionist hecklers with Israeli flags & some even have the gall to carry union jacks!
And remember During the 2WW one extreme Zionist group wrote to the Nazis offering to fight for them in the
Middle East whilst 12,000 Palestinians volunteered & fought alongside British soldiers against the Nazis.
Yet who does the Labour Govt (and previous Tory Govt) stand by, arm & use spy planes for?
Is this your Zionism Starmer & Lab Cabinet (& previous Tory Cabinet)?
Both should be in front of The Hague.
WE, unlike Labour & the Tories, remember those working class lads & lasses who were just trying to keep the peace.
We Salute You.
Oh I can’t wait for them. My Palestinian flag has been in the window of my front door for 15 years. I will happily take that charge and fight it in court. NO ONE is forcing me to support zionism and the holocaust of our times.
I see that “No further action will be taken against Kneecap over their performance at Glastonbury, police have said.
Last month, Avon and Somerset Police launched a criminal investigation into comments made on stage by the Irish language rap trio at the music festival.
On Friday, the force said detectives had sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and chosen not to take any further action against Kneecap on the grounds that there was “insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence”.
Kneecap called the investigation “political policing intimidation” and said their performance was a “celebration of love and solidarity”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly290dk226o
I see that “No further action will be taken against Kneecap over their performance at Glastonbury,
So do I. As does everyone on here – and the (political) nation.
And there’s NO chance keef doesn’t know by now – because I’ve only just found out, at time of writing.
Hehehe…he’s the zionist without qualification And this is THE keef pet project, designed to keep his tribe in line.
As well as being the only policy he hasn’t backed down on.
And we’ve heard nowt from him – yet. I very much look forward to the lip service, though.
Except it WON’T be forgotten. It’s yet another nail.
Yet ANOTHER legal defeat, for the former DPP who used to prosecute terrorists. (But not nonces or bent coppers)
I digress.
When are we gonna be told about Diane Abbott’s ‘admirable legacy’??
PS still got that part-time job?
What is/ was it, again??
Breaking News: A friend from miles away has just told me that at the Pro Palestine March in Leeds today someone who was carrying a placard which was the word for word recent Private Eye piece (that references a certain proscribed group) was arrested for carrying this.
Apparently It was done not by the Blue Bibs but was done by the Yellow Bibs.
So are Private Eye arrested too?
You couldn’t make it up on Right Wing Labour’s Ministry of Truth (Orwell) watch.
“Is this what they have done to us?”
“Is this what they have done to us?”
They always were. Anyone who had observed Starmer KNEW he was going to be a sociopathic autocrat, and that his first call is what is good for Israel.