The Ceasefire Between Israel and Iran Was At Israel’s Request

 The Attempt to Smear Palestine Action as Terrorists Can Be Defeated By People Declaring ‘We Are All Palestine Action’ & Refusing to be Deterred by the Lie that Protest=Terrorism

Sit in at Brighton Station & Demo In Protest Against the US Strike Against Iran's Nuclear Facilities

Last Monday was a day of two demonstrations on two separate but interlinked issues. At midday there was the energetic and lively demonstration against the proscription of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group.

At 5.30 pm when back in Brighton there was firstly a sit-in at Brighton Railway Station and then a march and demonstration against the United States attack on Iran.  I am posting videos and photos from both demonstrations. I spoke twice at the Brighton demonstration and sit-in.

Rally at Brighton Clocktower

Tony Greenstein Speech at Brighton's Clocktower on 23 June after a march against the Attack on Iran

Just as in 2006 when a ceasefire was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah, which Israel got Bush to arrange when Israel was getting the worst of the fight, so too with the ceasefire that Trump arranged on Tuesday.

The ceasefire was clearly at Israel’s behest. Trump also came out with strident criticism of Israel for having broken the ceasefire not understanding that in Israel’s eyes a ceasefire means you cease and we’ll fire.

Rally at Brighton Clocktower

Demonstration Against the Proscription of Palestine Action 23 June 2025

Israel launched the attack on Iran hoping to remove its regime and thus establish complete dominance in the region.  The lie that Iran was developing nuclear weapons has been comprehensively discredited by US Intelligence.

However we should be clear. Israel and the United States attack on Iran never had anything to do with Iran' non-existent nuclear weapons. The aim is to eliminate the Iranian state from disrupting Israeli  and US plans for the Middle East. An extension of the Abraham Accords with Saudi Arabia at its centre.

The latest manifestation of this is The Abraham Shield which is Israel’s New Blueprint for Regional Control After Gaza. The aim is the integration of the Gulf and Arab economies with that of Israel as the latter excludes the Palestinians, both physically and politically from having any say in their future. It is an Orwellian nightmare of total control by Israel and the Arab regimes of the destiny of the Arab peoples.

The attack on Iran has been the fulfilment of a 20 year wet dream by Netanyahu. He believed that with Trump in power that he could drag the US into the conflict. However despite the fact that the US bombed three nuclear installations, it was clear that the US didn’t want to get embroiled in Netanyahu’s war.

Netanyahu was under the impression that the surprise attack on Iran would be a cakewalk. It was anything but. Instead Iran gave Israelis a chance to experience what Palestinians in Gaza have experienced with demolished buildings and streets and an understanding of what war means in reality. One-third of Tel Aviv was damaged or destroyed.

Not since 1948 in the so-called War of Independence has Tel Aviv been bombed (by the Egyptian airforce).  If Hezbollah had done the same when they had the chance then Israel might have thought twice about devastating Gaza.

The Police were at their aggressive best

What now? Israel will not give up easily having been bruised in the current encounter. Iran will need to replenish their missile stocks and renew their air defences as well as trying to supply their allies in the region, the so-called Axis of Resistance, with new weaponry.

But the challenge is not only military but political and this is where the Iranian regime is fatally flawed.  It is a repressive, undemocratic regime that is at odds with its own citizens. Although Iranians rallied round when Israel was attacking it, they are not going to tolerate a corrupt and dictatorial clerical state that believes in using religion to justify its attacks on women, minorities and the working class.

Rally at Brighton Clocktower

Iran suffered a great deal of damage from Israeli air attacks on its infrastructure. It is also suffering from economic sanctions and the thinly veiled hostility of neighbouring Arab regimes. Both Jordan and Saudi Arabia were involved in shooting down Iranian missiles. Qatar hosts the largest US base in the region.

Iran is unable to respond to these treacherous regimes precisely because it is not dissimilar in its contempt and repression of its own people. That is the problem for those who believe that the struggle is simply military. The Iranian regime is unable to appeal to the wider Arab populace as Egypt's President Nasser was once able to. Theocratic dictatorships are not popular, either in Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Of one thing we can be sure and that is that Israel is not going to give up and it is going to enlist the Arab regimes in its plans. The Iranian regime, which believes it can ally with those regimes is very much mistaken if it thinks they will help it resist US imperialism and its Israeli attack dog.

The Mullahs are incapable of a genuine anti-imperialist alliance because that would mean allying with the very forces, the Arab street, which in Iran would also remove its own dictatorship.

The Iranian regime is often seen as anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist. This is a mistake.  It had a golden opportunity with its ceasefire with Israel to demand that Israel also agree to a ceasefire and withdrawal in Gaza. I doubt if the idea even entered the head of Khameini and Iran’s rulers.

In Lebanon the forces of the state and the Phalangists are encircling Hezbollah which has become very unpopular given the way they handled the confrontation with Israel. Allowing suppliers to provide them with pagers containing explosives without checking them raises the question as to how they were so careless.

It is clear that Hezbollah was penetrated from top to bottom by Zionist agents and that Israel was in possession of real time information about the whereabouts of Hezbollah’s leadership.

Rally at Brighton Clocktower

But the real problem is that Hezbollah became part of the corrupt Lebanese Establishment. It had no programme for social and political change that could unite the different communities. It had no proposals for ending the confessional nature of the Lebanese political system whereby a Christian becomes President, a Sunni Prime Minister, a Shi’ite Speaker of the Parliament etc. The 128 seats in Parliament are divided equally between Muslim and Christian despite Muslims being in a majority.

Rally at Brighton Clocktower

Changing this was the main goal of the Lebanese National Movement in the civil war of the 1970s. A civil war which saw Syria’s Assad intervene on the side of the Phalangists.

MSNBC on Donald Trump and his Lies About 'Obliterating' Iran's Nuclear Sites

Netanyahu succeeded in his aim in that the US bombed Iran's 3 nuclear sites last weekend. Unfortunately for Trump, despite his boasts that he had obliterated the facilities it is clear that the MOABs did not do the job as the facilities were too well protected.

The Familiar Face of Alexei Sayle

However the present ceasefire is not designed to last and we can be sure that Israel will be plotting with the traitorous Arab regimes, not least those of Jordan and Saudi Arabia how to renew the conflict.

It now seems that a desperate Israeli military has taken to threatening Iranian officials and their families: rebel or we’ll kill you

The guy on the right was the speaker before me

"WE ARE ALL PAL ACTION"

Meanwhile at home Palestine Action is due to be proscribed despite massive opposition to Starmer’s giant step towards a police state. It is clear to most people that the terrorists are the genocidaires not those who oppose them.

Even that beacon of fair-weather liberal opinion, The Guardian, has come out strongly against the proposals of Starmer and Cooper with its legal correspondent Haroon Sidique saying it would have a ‘chilling effect’ on other protest groups, which of course was the whole purpose.

Its leading article asked ‘if red paint is terrorism, what isn’t?’ begging the question as to why the Guardian backed Police State Starmer and the ‘feminist’ Yvette Cooper against Jeremy Corbyn in the first place.

The war of this miserable ‘Labour’ government against our democratic rights, coupled with their attacks on the disabled and working class people shows that it is nothing but a continuation of the Tories. Labour is preparing the way for Nigel Farage’s far-right racist Reform.

Tony Greenstein

Last Thursday I was Charged With Exercising My Right to Freedom of Speech & Remanded to the Old Bailey for Supporting the Palestinian Resistance

In Starmer’s Brave New World It is a Crime to Hold or Express Opinions that Oppose Genocide or War Crimes – War really is Peace

Tony Greenstein speech outside Westminster magistrates court

Last Thursday 19^th December 2024 I was formally charged with inviting support for a proscribed organisation and expressing an opinion or belief that was ‘supportive’ of them.

Needless to say I have done neither and I pled not guilty to offences carrying a 14 year prison sentence. As I explained to the 100 or so demonstrators outside, in a wonderful expression of solidarity, if I had downloaded hard core child pornography and my name was Hugh Edwards, I could expect a 6 months suspended sentence.

My real ‘offence’ was opposing Israel’s 57 year old occupation of Gaza and its ethnic cleansing of Gaza. If the proscription of anti-colonial resistance groups had been in place 40 years ago then I could have been charged with supporting another ‘terrorist’ organisation – the ANC.  Because that is what Thatcher and Reagan called the ANC.

Thatcher told a press conference at the Commonwealth summit in Vancouver, in 1987:

A considerable number of the ANC leaders are Communists… When the ANC says that they will target British companies, this shows what a typical terrorist organisation it is. I fought terrorism all my life… I will have nothing to do with any organisation that practises violence. I have never seen anyone from ANC or the PLO or the IRA and would not do so.

Presumably Thatcher kept her distance from the British army too! This is the hypocrisy that labels Hamas, Hezbollah and the PKK as ‘terrorist’. The massively greater violence of the Israeli and Turkish states simply does not exist for creatures like Thatcher or Starmer. State violence is fine, but violence against the state is ‘terrorism’ unless, as with Assad and Gaddafi, we oppose the state too.

Tony Greenstein speech outside Westminster magistrates court

Using the same ‘logic’ Thatcher should have condemned violence by the Yugoslav resistance under Tito against the Nazi occupation. Because the Special Operations Executive, which became the SAS, was aiding them, she would have made an exception for them. This demonstrates that those who define resistance organisations as ‘terrorist’ don’t have a single principle between them.

Outside Tony Greenstein's court hearing, end segment

If I’d been alive 80 years ago according to the same logic people could have been charged with supporting the French and Polish Resistance. The Nazis certainly called them ‘terrorists’.

The system of proscribing organisations in force today enables any support for any national liberation or resistance organisation to be classified as ‘terrorist’ thus making support for people seeking to overthrow colonialism or imperialism a criminal offence.

International law supports the right of resistance of those opposing colonialism and this includes the Palestinians but British law deems this irrelevant. Except in the case of Ukraine of course!

Tony Greenstein speech outside Westminster magistrates court

Suffice to say those who profess their support for freedom of speech also seek to outlaw anything that strays outside the overton window of what is and is not allowed to be discussed. It is a window that has been closing for the past half century.

Freedom of speech has limits and those limits are not confined to incitement to racial hatred or violence against another person but to support of organisations that the Establishment deem to be ‘extreme’ i.e. anti-colonial or anti-capitalist.

‘Extremism’ is the new buzzword. When I was remanded in custody I was asked at reception whether or not I was an extremist! When I asked the young Black woman if she knew what an extremist was she confessed she didn’t. I then explained that all those who fought for the freedoms we take for granted (and which we are losing) like the Suffragettes, were also called extremists in their time. The Jewish Chronicle then said that I compared myself to the Suffragettes!

It is no surprise that Attorney General Richard Hermer and his Zionist side-kick Sarah Sackman from the Jewish Labour Movement want to criminalise those who oppose British imperialism. They have lost the battle to tar us with the ‘anti-Semitism’ brush and have therefore sought the help of the Police to keep us silent.

Live: Outside Tony Greenstein's court hearing

It is untrue that I support Hamas as a political organisation. What I do is to recognise that it was elected by the Palestinians in 2006 in preference to Fateh. Instead of respecting the outcome of the elections, the Israeli state together with the US and Britain supported a coup attempt by Palestinian Quisling Mahmoud Abbas to overthrow the elected government of the Palestinians.

There are terrorist organisations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, both of which are the creations of US imperialism. We see today how Al Qaeda offshoot Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which was proscribed in May 2017 has quickly been taken to the bosom of the imperialists. At the time the justification for their proscription was that they:

 ‘should be treated as alternative names for the organisation which is already proscribed under the name Al Qa’ida.’

All sorts of people like MI6 former chief Sir John Sawers have called for the UK to deproscribe HTS. Sawers argued that the organisation has changed significantly in the last several years.

Sawers told Sky News that Jolani, the head of HTS "has made great efforts over the last 10 years to distance himself from those terrorist groups.

"Certainly, the actions we've seen of Tahrir al-Sham over the last two weeks have been those of a liberation movement, not of a terrorist organisation,"

"It would be rather ridiculous, actually, if we're unable to engage with the new leadership in Syria because of a proscription dating back 12 years."

For once the Telegraph got it right when Nina Shea wrote

That commander Al-Jolani has now changed into a Western suit and talks of moderation, they undoubtedly see, is purely tactical. When before has a holy warrior, at the very moment of triumph, pulled down his keffiyeh to reveal underneath a champion of religious pluralism and freedom? These militants are no more credible than the Taliban, who promised to respect women’s rights but who, three years after taking control of Afghanistan, have “erased” women from public life, as the UN reports.

Sawyer’s statements seem very supportive of an organisation that is still proscribed yet the anti-terrorist police have not conducted a dawn raid on his home in the early hours of the morning because he is in breach of s.12(1A) of the Terrorism Act. Clearly the Police are making political decisions as to who is breaching the said Act.

If Sawers had said the same about a proscribed Palestinian organisation his feet wouldn’t have touched the floor before he was arrested by the Thought Police.

Proscription has nothing to do with terrorism. It is about preventing people supporting organisations that are fighting for the rights of their own people against regimes imposed by the West.

Terrorism contrary to the definition in the Terrorism Act 2000 has nothing to do with ‘serious damage against property’, ‘serious violence against a person’, the disruption of electronic systems or health and safety. All of the above are covered by other legislation.

Terrorism is the deliberate infliction of violence and terror on civilian populations. ISIS, with its attempted genocide of the Yazidis clearly fits into this as does Al Qaeda. ISIS violence in Paris, the Bataclan attack and the London Bridge knife attacks or the Manchester Arena bombing of Ariana Grande’s concert were for the sake of spreading terror without any discernible political motive.

It is usually because an organisation lacks a mass base that they resort to terrorism. Hamas (& Hezbollah) have both been elected and carry large popular support. Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel in support of Gaza was carefully calibrated and unlike Israel’s response did not target civilians but military infrastructure primarily.

The worst terrorist attack in Britain, the bombing of Ariana Grande’s concert in the Manchester Arena in May 2017 came about because of the collusion of MI5 with the bomber, Salman Abedi, who had been sent to Libya to fight in jihadist organisations trying to overthrow Col. Gaddafi.

The head of MI5 said he was "profoundly sorry" the security service did not prevent the Manchester Arena attack but not so sorry that he was prepared to reveal the truth about the bomber’s links with MI5.

An article Manchester Arena bombing inquiry delivers cover-up “in the national interest” on the World Socialist Web Site explains:

The final report by Sir John Saunders from the inquiry he led into the Manchester Arena terrorist bombing is a state cover-up. It conceals the role of MI5, MI6, the Ministry of Defence and successive British governments in the grooming and protection of far-right Islamists who were deployed to achieve imperialist foreign policy objectives in Libya and throughout the Middle East.

The 22-year-old Salman Abedi worked with Islamist fighters who were trained, armed, and financed by the British state and NATO to topple Libyan leader Muammar and install a puppet regime.

Abedi had been sent to fight in Libya with Jihadi groups by MI5 as part of a plot to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi. British imperialism aligned itself with the very forces that they would later classify as terrorist. Again there was blowback and 22 people died as a result.

In order to ensure that the cover-up succeeded the families of the victims were prevent from suing MI5. Suffice to say the ever loyal Guardian went along with the cover up blaming it on Abedi’s ‘radicalisation’ - How Manchester bomber Salman Abedi was radicalised by his links to Libya without even a mention of MI5!

The duplicity and dishonesty of our war criminal leaders and the press means that Terrorism legislation is being deployed to suppress political debate and discussion not terrorism.

The next stage in my trial will be the Old Bailey on Friday 31 January at 10.00 am and there will be a demonstration outside the court because my prosecution is aimed at the Palestine solidarity movement as a whole, not just me as an individual.

The turnout last Thursday was impressive but it could have been better still. London PSC groups were not in evidence unlike groups such as Jewish Voice for Labour, Jewish Network for Palestine and the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. It is about time that PSC took the attacks on the solidarity movement seriously.

It is not enough to issue a statement condemning the repression of Palestine Action and then do nothing further. A statement on its own is useless. PSC has to realise that the British state is attacking the Palestine solidarity movement and that means it must defend those who are targeted by them. The problem with PSC is that it has no anti-Zionist or anti-imperialist politics. It has become just another NGO.

The attacks by the Police on the Palestine solidarity movement are only part of the picture. The Met have also been acting on behalf Recep Erdogan and Turkey’s genocidal repression of the Kurds. The PKK, which is fighting the Turkish army has a mass base amongst the Kurds. It is anything but a terrorist group.

Through proscription the British state is clamping down on support for the PKK in Britain. This has nothing to do with terrorism. Palestine solidarity and Kurdish supporters have to start working together.

Finally please also contribute to my Crowdfunder:  It is not just for me but for activists caught up in the ‘terrorist’ trap.

Stopping the Police Persecuting Palestine Solidarity Activists

Tony Greenstein