Police arrest pro-Palestinian activists for posts on social media.

 

Tony Greenstein

Although we're supposed to enjoy freedom of speech in the UK, it looks like the British bobbies are trying to silence people with pro-Palestinian sympathies who speak out against Israel and who condemn the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women, and children, in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Like George Orwell's 'thought police' or the Gestapo, they've been arresting people or 'thought criminals', for posting comments on social media that expose the atrocities taking place in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. 

I recently posted a video on Facebook of Sarah Wilkinson, a disabled mother who was arrested by the police in front of her children for simply reposting on social media, articles about the current conflict in Gaza. Sarah maintains that’s all she did. After her home was raided by five police officers and her property confiscated, including vegetable plants that her children were cultivating, she was arrested under section 12 of the Terrorist Act and taken on a one-and-half hour drive to Swindon police station where she was held in custody for seven hours. She was told by police officers during her interview that she must "denounce" Hamas and Palestine and if she did so, she wouldn't be charged. The police told her that some people in this country might be offended by her being offended by talk of genocide and war crimes taking place in Gaza. One of her bail conditions was that she agree not use social media which she refused to accept. Sarah Wilkinson told the police she wouldn't be silenced or tell lies and that they should read out the Terrorism Act to the Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who’s government are acquiescing with atrocities taking place in Gaza by supporting Israel and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire. It looks like the police will be wanting to prosecute her under the Malicious Communications Act rather than the Terrorism Act.

It has just been reported on Skwawkbox that the veteran pro-Palestinian activist and anti-Zionist, Tony Greenstein, was arrested by the police in Brighton in the early hours of the morning of 20 December. It seems he was arrested for posting a Tweet on social media that the police have found objectionable. Greenstein was recently given a 9- months prison sentence suspended for two years, after he was found guilty with three others of intent to cause criminal damage to the Israeli arms company Elbit, in Shenstone, near Walsall. No actual damage was caused to the factory because the plot was thwarted by the police. All the defendants were part of Palestine Action and had targeted the factory because it makes drones and parts for drones used to kill Palestinians.

Unlike America, there is no First Amendment in the UK that protects freedom of expression. Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, does protect your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference. Article 10, is not an absolute right as it contains restrictions where the rights and freedoms of others, public order, and the general welfare, are concerned. However, the right of not being offended is not one of those restrictions.

We should always remember that all governments are capable of becoming repressive and authoritarian dystopias and that includes governments in liberal democratic societies. The ancient Greeks recognised that eternal vigilance was the price to be paid for freedom.