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The Canary: Police already equating Gaza and genocide protests with terrorism despite adverse legal ruling

War and conflict
#1

To recap. In the judgement on the proscription of the group Palestine Action, the judge said (cited by Craig Murray in the excellent linked report) the following

Judge Chamberlain "… said the Order exists because the Secretary of State believes it will provide the public with certain protections. If the Order is suspended it will be denied that protection.

The Secretary of State had said that people will be able to continue to oppose Israel’s actions; they will be able to continue to describe those actions as Genocide or other breaches of international humanitarian law."

Police are ignoring this and equating any Gaza protest with support for PA.

The Canary has also been on this. It shows a video where a police officer says essentially this very thing. In fact the office goes further and explains that the suspicion is then that the person is actually a member of the proscribed group.

Video: police using Palestine Action proscription to target even mention of Palestine, ‘Gaza’, ‘freedom’

See how far we have come.

  1. There is ‘Terrorism’…okay - leaving aside that politicians obviously want to make as much of that as possible, while excluding their own murderous actions (a terrorist is a man with a bomb that hasn’t got an air force - Chomsky).

  2. Then there are proscribed groups, under the Terrorism Act, which have never committed violence - let alone terrorism.

  3. Then there is support for a proscribed group - now a ‘terrorist’ offence in itself.

  4. Then there is the “reasonable suspicion” which allows police to arrest someone who expresses a legitimate view - acknowledged by a high court judge and a Secretary of State) on the basis that it is reasonable to suppose that they might support the proscribed group who also shares that view, whether the proscribed group carries out terrorist actions or violence or none of that.

Each of these extreme stretches carries the same maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

As Palestine Action never even carried out violence in the first place, it is possible to “reason” that anyone opposed to the genocide in Gaza supports them, just as soon as they open their mouths to criticize Israel’s actions.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it it is not simply terrorism or the group Palestine Action that have been outlawed, but the criticism itself of Israel’s genocide, and even its mere mention.

The only people safe from this “reasonable suspicion” by unreasonable people with unreasonable power, are those who say nothing. And those who support Israel’s actions, of course. They might be Terrorist actions, of course, but supporters are still safe because the IDF and the Israeli government have not been proscribed by the UK government, and there is clearly no prospect of the genuine terrorism the UK govt supports being either recognized or proscribed.

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#2

Thanks for this E. Have you seen the UKC piece on support for PA (Friday 18th.)?
They’ve picked up on this:

. . .which tells you everything about the integrity of politicians (and lawyers).

PS. Miriam & I (and a few other diehard supporters) sat through all of the Fairford 5 retrials (2nd. retrials?) in 2007 which resulted in juries (as in juries) acquitting in 2 of them but convicting Margaret Jones and Paul Milling in the third one whereupon the judge admitted that he didn’t know what to do because the verdict was so unexpected. (Jones & Milling, alone out of the 5, were clearly motivated by religious conviction, both being Quakers.) All cases were fought on the basis that their crimes were justified by their desire to prevent the commission of graver ones and many days were taken with expert evidence on eg, the effects of cluster munitions in Afghanistan. Margaret Jones was at the time of her offence chair of Bristol PSC. How ironic that PSC, captured by the Zionists, has repudiated Palestine Action from the start.

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#3

And on a different subject but still indicative of the amoral world we live in, here is nearly three hours of video. I promise you that once you start watching, you will not want to stop. It’s about Jeffery Epstein, who he was, how he rose to be what we know he was, and how he was protected and aided all the way. It is also an expose of the sick society we live in.

#4

“. . .which tells you everything about the integrity of politicians (and lawyers)”

I knew of this, Starmer’s integrity already evident from his selective designation of genocide - which clearly, for him, is not a matter of law at all!
The silence from the rest of the political and judicial system is deafening. Was Starmer’s previous argument raised in court on behalf of Palestine Action? A precedent case as well as the ‘authority’ of the PM had every right to be. And of course we should have known about this piece of outstanding hypocrisy from the media.

There are no principles at all! Other than that power wins.

#5

There is a video in circulation of keef speaking. He admits to being a zionist etc.

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