Scottish Police Arrest Protestor For Holding “Nae Nazis” Sign at Bannon Event
There has
been a history of Scottish Police and the Scottish Legal Establishment trying
to demonise the Palestine solidarity movement. When the Jewish Quartet played
in Edinburgh the concert was disrupted. The same happened elsewhere in Britain.
In London 6 of us disrupted the JQ
at the Wigmore Hall in London. However in Scotland the authorities have made
every effort to criminalise Palestine protestors as ‘anti-Semitic’. Charges of “racially
aggravated conduct” levelled at 5
members of the Scottish Palestine Scottish Camapign were thrown out by Sheriff
James Scott at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday 8th April 2010.
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| Scottish Police say it is illegal to call fascists Nazis |
Scott said
the prosecutor's "attempts to
squeeze malice and ill will out of the agreed facts were rather strained".
The sheriff upheld
the defendants' arguments that their protests, in which they accused Israel of
genocide in Gaza, were
simply against the behaviour of a state and its army, not an attack on Jews or
any ethnic group.
The
protesters had clear rights to attack a state's behaviour under the European
convention on human rights, he said.
"If persons on a march
designed to protest against and publicise alleged crimes committed by a state
and its army are afraid to name that state for fear of being charged with
racially aggravated behaviour, that would render worthless their Article 10
rights," he said.
Mick Napier of
Scottish PSC said demonstrations against Israel's policies would continue.
"As long as the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine continues, Israel's political, cultural, and sporting
ambassadors will face boycott protest similar to that faced by the racist
apartheid South African regime in the last century,"
The fact
that the Scottish legal authorities failed is immaterial to the fact that they
tried very hard to prevent Palestine protest actions. It seems that the Police are once again
acting as the long arm of the Zionist movement.
 |
| BBC gives American fascist Steve Bannon a platform |
When a
protest was held at a media conference in Edinburgh this week, when the BBC
interviewed Stephen Bannon, the former editor Breitbart and an open fascist who
is attempting to co-ordinate European far-Right parties, which was yet another
example of the BBC giving publicity to racists and fascists, a protest was held.
Bannon, the
former chief exec of Trump’s presidential campaign, and the strategist behind
Trump’s attack on refugees, was given the oxygen of publicity by the BBC.
 |
| In 2010 Scottish Police arrested PSC activists demonstrating at the Jerusalem Quartet concert in Edinburgh |
About 100 protestors
assembled outside the Edinburgh International Conference Centre this week. Bannon was one of the star speaker’s at the
European Broadcasting Union’s annual News Xchange conference. Nicola Strugeon
withdrew from it when Bannon’s attendance was brought
to light by The Ferret. Sturgeon blasted the BBC – who helped to organise the
event – as running the risk of the “normalisation” of fascist views. The BBC
tried to justify his inclusion by telling the First Minister that he is “powerful and influential figure… promoting
an anti-elite movement”. There is nothing anti-elitist about fascism
although Hitler and many other fascists have always made this bogus claim.
The BBC’s
report “Man arrested
at Steve Bannon protest in Edinburgh”. revealed that a 56 year old man was “arrested and charged with threatening and
abusive behaviour” holding a sign saying “Nae Nazis”.
“We were both asked to put them away by the police because
it could constitute an offence.” They wouldn’t specify which
offence,” a woman said. “When I put my
sign down, another guy picked it up and was arrested by police immediately.”
“The police dragged the guy off further down the
road and I don’t know what happened over there, although a large crowd were
watching and filming.”
It’s
understood the man was told he was being arrested for breach of the peace,
which – unlike England – is a catch all offence in Scotland with no limit
on the potential sentence. It is absurd that describing a fascist as a ‘Nazi’ should
be considered threatening and abusive behaviour, and is an outrageous attack on
freedom of speech. ‘We will, of course,
keenly await the howls of outrage from all the free speech bros, Spiked
columnists and assorted liberal commentators about it though.’
Inside,
Bannon was pitted against the BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith. As this thread
from Buzzfeed’s Ryan Broderick
shows, Bannon spent the entire time talking over her, evading questions,
and bringing up his pet subjects, like ‘racism: actually good’, while Smith
tried to nitpick about inaccurate things Trump had said.
“Bannon is basically delivering a monologue about
the wonders of enthonationalism and sometimes asking Smith a question,” tweeted
Broderick. Bannon rounded it off by calling the entire audience “the opposition” and saying how excited
he is for the European elections – the same elections for which he is making a
big shown of co-ordinating
far right parties across the continent.
The man was
arrested under Section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act
2000. It would be logical to assume that police officers were briefed ahead of
the event over what would and would not be allowable in terms of protest signs
and flags. The real question now is – who passed down orders that “Nae Nazis” is a breach of the peace?
Adalah:
Israel's proposed death penalty intended for Palestinians only
13/11/2018
Well
of course it makes sense that the proposed death penalty for ‘terrorism’ in Israel
will only be applicable for Palestinians.
As we know that nothing Israel does is ‘terrorism’. It is law and order and in any event you
cannot expect a Jewish state to execute a Jew.
As the Knesset's Constitution,
Law, and Justice Committee prepared to debate the first draft of the
"Death Penalty for Terrorists" bill, Adalah – The Legal Center for
Arab Minority Rights in Israel feared it was intended for Palestinians only and
demanded that it be struck down for violating international law and Israel's
Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
 |
| Haneen Zoabi of Balad speaking in the Knesset |
Adalah sent a letter
on Tuesday, 13 November 2018 to committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky MK
demanding that he shelve the bill.
However, unlike the Bill which was proposed by Balad to make Israel a
state of its own citizens and which was rejected as unfit to be debated even
before it got to the Knesset floor, this Bill has been approved. Knesset
Council Bans Bill to Define Israel as State for All Its Citizens
Israel is the kind of democracy
that is happy to discuss a racist death penalty for Palestinians only but which
believes that the idea of a state where all are equal is unconstitutional. But this doesn’t stop racist idiots like
Labour MPs Emily Thornberry and Tom Watson signing up to this.
In his letter to Slomiansky,
Adalah Attorney Rabea Eghbariah argued that the death penalty is an example of
cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and therefore contradicts the spirit
of international law and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty.
Furthermore, the legislation of a
death penalty would potentially lead, practically, to discrimination based on
ethnicity and national belonging. The law would be imposed by the Knesset on
the Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank – in contradiction of the
provisions of international law – and would create different norms of
application on Palestinian residents of the West Bank."
Adalah Attorney
Rabea Eghbariah commented on the bill:
"At a time when
countries around the world are ridding themselves of the death penalty, Israel
is seeking to legitimize it. This is a draconian bill that is not only futile
in its declared purpose of creating a deterrent effect, but contradicts core
legal rights and is overtly aimed at Palestinians exclusively."
Of course
there is nothing in the Bill itself which says it will not apply to Jews. It’s just that it can only be applied by the
Military Courts in the West Bank. And who is subject to the Military
Courts? Why of course Palestinians as Jewish
settlers are subject to the normal Israeli civil and criminal courts.
Ironically
despite the Israeli government introducing a Bill supporting the death
penalty in the Occupied Territories, at the UN Israel supported a motion
calling for the ending of the death
penalty! Clearly when it comes to hasbara the Israeli state is happy to oppose
the death penalty.
Meet Ahmed: the schoolboy who was sentenced
to death in Egypt for a crime that took place 21 days after his arrest
Meet Ahmed.
He was just 17 when he was abducted by Egyptian police and tortured until he
"confessed" to taking part in an assassination attempt.
But here's
the thing: the attempt took place 21 days AFTER Ahmed's abduction. He couldn't
have done it.
This is his
story.
On 2 March
2015, armed officers kicked down the door of Ahmed’s family home in the middle
of the night and took Ahmed from his bed. There was no warrant.
He was taken
to an undisclosed location, where he was held for nearly three months. He was
not allowed to contact a lawyer or even his family – who didn’t know if he was
alive or dead.
While in
detention, Ahmed was beaten with metal rods and subjected to electric shocks
until he confessed to crimes he didn't commit.
The most
serious alleged offence – involvement in an attempted assassination – took
place on 23 March 2015, 21 days after Ahmed’s abduction. Ahmed simply could not
have been involved in the assassination attempt, because he was already in
custody and being tortured as it happened.
After 80
days, Egyptian authorities finally acknowledged Ahmed's detention and
"officially" arrested him.
If you
thought that Ahmed would be able to clear his name at trial, you’d be wrong.
Ahmed was sent to a mass trial of 30 people, nearly all adults.
Officially,
children in Egypt should be tried in special juvenile courts. But the
authorities exploited a loophole in the law that allows children to be tried
alongside adults in mass trials.
Mass trials
are not fair trials – scores or even hundreds of people stand in the dock at
once, unable to present an individual defence. This leaves children especially
vulnerable.
Ahmed was
convicted in a mass trial on the basis of his forced confession obtained
through torture, which the court failed to exclude.
Ahmed has
now been sentenced to death. Under Egyptian and international law, children
should never be sentenced to death. Yet in Egypt, this is regularly ignored.
Courts have recommended death sentences for at least 10 children since 2013.
A final
appeal in Ahmed’s case is in December. But in the meantime, we’ve launched a
campaign to end the appalling abuses like those Ahmed has suffered.
We’re
calling on Egypt to release children sentenced to death, close the Child Death
Penalty Loophole, and end the use of mass trials. You can read more and join
the campaign to #EndMassInjustice
here: https://act.reprieve.org.uk/page/content/egypt?source=eg1018fbthv1
You can sign
the petition to end mass trials and death sentences for children here: https://act.reprieve.org.uk/page/s/egypt?source=eg1018fbthv2
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