We live in a Dystopia where Opposing Genocide & Attacking Arms Factories is a Crime Whereas Profiting from the Death of Children is Lawful
Stop Starmer's Police State Webinar 30 August 2025
Last
Saturday over 200 people attended our Webinar
‘Stopping Starmer’s
Police State – Defending the Right to Protest’ to listen to six different speakers, three of
whom have been arrested under the Terrorism Acts, one of whom is the mother of
a daughter, Fatimah, who is in custody, Huda Ammori the co-founder of Palestine
Action and Franck Magennis, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers who is
presently one of the lawyers involved in seeking the deproscription of Hamas.
It says something about the nature of the Tory
Party and its far-right leader, Kemi Bad Enoch (presumably her mother had forewarning
of how she would turn out when she was named!) that its Justice Secretary
Robert Jenrick, someone who is more comfortable in the company of neo-Nazis and
asylum protesters, has branded as ‘sickening’
the bid to deproscribe Hamas.
Natalie Strecker’s pre-recorded speech
Unfortunately Natalie Strecker, who has been
charged with a terrorist offence in Jersey, under laws similar but not
identical to our own, did not feel able to attend and speak in person. She did
however kindly agree to send us a video with her message and it is shown above
Filton 24 supporters stage demo outside prison holding activistsc /
London
Teuta
Hoxha has been held in prison without trial for the last nine months, and has
been on hunger strike since 11 August as a protest against the denial of her
basic rights. She says that she and her Palestine Action co-defendants are
being monitored by the Counter Extremism Unit. See Filton
24 hunger striker tells the Canary government is monitoring her under counter
extremism
It is a sad, sick comment on Starmer and
Cooper’s Britain that young women and men who are trying to stop a genocide are
treated like the worst criminals whilst arms manufacturers, who profit from the
bodies of babies torn to shredd are feted, wined and dined.
One person who should be in gaol is Lord
Dannat, a former head of the British army and a member of the House of Lords. He urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action
at the request of the US defence company Teledyne that employs him as an
adviser.
Despite his claims of non-interference, police
transcripts in a trial disclosed internal objections to his involvement,
although a judge ultimately ruled that he had not interfered in the active
investigation.
The revelation arrives amid existing scandals: Dannatt was already under two separate investigations. One from the House of Lords watchdog concerning a covert video of him offering access to ministers for commercial clients, and another into lobbying on behalf of CF Industries to save a fertilizer plant – where he received honoraria and leveraged his peerage for legitimacy. See Lord Dannatt urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at request of US firm and Scandal-hit Lord Dannatt now caught lobbying for arms industry against Palestine Action
Next up to speak was Mick Napier, Chair of
Scottish PSC who has spent most of his active life being arrested. It is ironic
that despite Scotland being ruled for most of that time by the Scottish
National Party, the SNP has given next to no support to the Palestinians who
are also fighting for their freedom from an alien occupation. Indeed the record
of the Scottish Police is as bad as those in England. See SACC
Statement on the Arrest of Mick Napier.
The next speaker was Richard Medhurst, a journalist who was
arrested by the counter-terror police at Heathrow Airport and accused of ‘expressing
an opinion or belief that is supportive of a terrorist organisation’. He was
detained for 24 hours, his electronic devices seized and he has been waiting
for over a year to see if he is going to be charged. See his account here.
Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action was the next to
speak and as always she gave a barnstorming speech outlining the growth of the
campaign against Palestine Action’s proscription.
Next up was Franck Magennis, a prominent Irish and socialist
barrister from Garden Court Chambers. Franck is involved in the attempt to
secure de-proscription of Hamas. He has been targeted
by the Israeli government front group the so-called Campaign Against
Antisemitism for having told the racist Chief Rabbi Mirvis to shut his racist, Zionist
mouth!
The CAA have submitted not one but two complaints against
Franck. Presumably on the basis that if
one doesn’t succeed the other might! Among the things they objected to was the statement
that:
“Zionism is collapsing. Keep hammering anyone who still identifies as a
Zionist. Their apartheid state is a pariah. It’s on its way out, just like
South Africa, like Jim Crow, like the French in Algeria. Escalate!!”
Most people would agree that this is a good example of the
exercise of free speech but given that the CAA is an Israeli front group it’s
not surprising that they believe that British standards of free speech should
mirror those of Israel – where pro-Palestine speech normally results in arrest
and a beating.
I was the last speaker and I will leave you to watch to find out
what I said! Apart from, that is, taking Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Ben
Jamal to task for having done nothing to support the campaign to destroy the
proscription of Palestine Action. PSC still labourd under the illusion that
they can, by staging demonstrations in London that no one reports and writing
protest letters to MPs that no one reads, win over the British Establishment to
the Palestinian cause. Softly, softly and mainstreaming is what they call a
strategy.
After all the speakers had spoken there was a Q&A session.
The meeting was co-chaired by Esther Giles of the Socialist Labour Network and
Haim Bresheeth of Jewish Network for Palestine.
The meeting itself was sponsored by the JNP, Jewish Voice for
Labour, the SLN and Scottish PSC.
Tony Greenstein
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