The Met Police Offered Sympathy to the Victims of the Sydney Attack but
none to the Palestinian Victims of Israeli Genocide – this is what Police
Racism is All About
PALESTINE DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE JUSTICE MINISTRY IN SUPPORT OF THE HUNGER STRIKERS 17 December 2025
Zarah Sultana is to be congratulated for taking the
initiative last night and standing outside
HMP Bronzefield whilst the scumbags that Sodexho employs were denying medical
treatment and refusing to call an ambulance to Qesser
Zuhra.
Eventually, after a number
of arrests and the usual police violence coupled with energetic protests by
those who had congregated outside an ambulance was called.
Tonight's demonstration outside the Injustice Ministry
I’m not leaving until HMP Bronzefield accept an ambulance to transfer hunger striker Qesser Zuhrah to hospital for urgent medical care that she desperately needs. pic.twitter.com/AVpPFOT6lE
I repeatedly rang HMP
Bronzefield last night and was left speaking to an answer phone or a phone that
just kept ringing. Clearly the duty of care to prisoners at this privatised
prison is non-existent.
Tonight I attended a
demonstration outside the Justice Ministry which Palestine Solidarity Campaign had
belatedly called. The Police presence was heavy and intimidating but
nonetheless a thousand people gathered to show their solidarity. The Police had
earlier banned the demonstration from Downing Street as it might ‘interfere’
with a Chanukah celebration in Trafalgar Square.
Tonight's demonstration outside the Injustice Ministry
Once again the racist
Metropolitan Police use ‘anti-Semitism’ as the excuse to attack Palestine
solidarity and then they claim they are not political.
In a joint statement with
Manchester Police, the Met has also banned
the use of ‘Globalise the Intifada’ slogan. This despite their admitting that
the CPS has ruled against it legally. Thus we see the police state in formation
as a nakedly political police takes over.
The Palestine
Solidarity movement must now make this slogan, just as we made, ‘Palestine will be free, from the river to the
sea’ our slogan. Let the Met try and arrest us all.
have you ever offered any sympathy to the 100,000+ Palestinian victims of genocide @metpoliceuk? you are becoming more and more a political police force https://t.co/6s2dJ4owTD
— Tony Greenstein tonygreenstein.com (@TonyGreenstein) December 17, 2025
The Met and GMP offered
their condolences to the victims of the Australian terror attack. When have
they ever offered their condolences to the Palestinian victims of the Zionists?
Their racism is on
display for all to see. It stretches from Stephen Lawrence all the way to Palestine.
The BBC reported tonight
that two of the hunger strikers, Jon Cink and Umer
Khalid, have ended their hunger strike. I say this reluctantly but I believe
that now is the time to end all the hunger strikes. They have served their
purpose, which is highlighting the gross injustice of opponents of genocide
being remanded in custody whilst the supporters of the genocide are free to peddle
their lies.We do not want to see anyone
die and it is quite clear that Starmer and Lammy are quite prepared to allow them
to die.
Now We Need to Build Support for the Hunger Strikers & Defeat
Lammy’s Attempts to Abolish Juries
Natalie Strecker Speaking After Her Victory
The acquittal of Natalie Strecker on charges
of inviting support for proscribed organisations, Hamas and Hezbollah, is a
victory for the all of us and a defeat for a government that has given
unstinting support to Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.
'Freedom of Speech and Protests Against Genocide are not Terrorism
Please Register for
the Webinar on December 11th 6 pm
However we cannot rest on our laurels. The
government and its Zionist Attorney General Richard Hermer sent a senior King’s
Counsel to Jersey to inform the Judge, Sir John Saunders and the Jurants that
International Law was to be disregarded.
International law, be it the Genocide
Conventionor the European Convention on
Human Rights is now a frivolous extra to be disregarded by British courts. One
wonders what the point is of signing onto such treaties if they are going
to be comprehensively ignored.
We have a miserable ‘Labour government’ that
is inhock to Trump who has sanctioned
the International Criminal Court for daring to issue arrest warrants for
Netanyahu and Gallant on charges of war crimes like some second-rate mafia boss.
Trump has attacked anyone standing up for
human rights. Francesca Albanesa has lost
all her bank accounts, as a full spectrum attack is made on anyone committed to
what remains of international law.
Not surprisingly Starmer and Hermer, both of
whom were human rights lawyers, have not only failed to criticise a lawless and
rogue American government they have actively aided him with their persecution
of those who campaign against Israel’s genocide.
Bringing up the rear, the ever pathetic David
Lammy is embarked on abolishing juries in most trials as the government does
their best to ensure that the only independent voice in our constitution is
silenced. Juries have a habit of acquitting defendants in trials whereas judges
do their best to secure convictions.
Judges can be relied on to reflect Establishment views because they come from the very same Establishment
It took a long fight before juries
were able to establish their right to reach a verdict that the judge in the
trial did not like. The government
has attempted to roll back the right of jurors, derived from the 1670 case
of Edward Bushells, to deliver a
verdict contrary to a judge’s directions and in accordance with their
conscience.
Hunger
striking UK political prisoners learn lessons from Palestine
This
despite a plaque commemorating this case being on the wall of the Old Bailey. The arrest of Trudy
Warner and others who had the temerity to inform jurors of their right was a
warning shot across the bows. However Judge Saini in the High Court made it clear
that Bushell’s was still good law despite the behaviour of Judge Silas Reid and others in
ordering the police to arrest those holding signs informing jurors of their
rights. Although the Tory government appealed
Saini’s judgment the incoming Labour government dropped
it.
Before the Bushell’s
Case in 1670 juries had been
little more than creatures of the judges. They were termed the Judges 13
voices. It was not unusual for judges to instruct juries that they must return
a verdict of guilty.
In 1670 a jury
refused to convict William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and a prominent
Quaker and William Mead, for preaching to an ‘unlawful and tumultuous’ assembly.
They were only prepared to state that they had been preaching, which was a statement
of fact.
The jury was then locked up for 2 days without food, water
or a chamber pot. The jury was heavily fined but Edward Bushell refused to pay
the fine and was imprisoned for contempt. He then petitioned for habeus
corpus and the Court of Common Pleas under Chief Justice Vaughan
established that juries could not be punished for their verdicts.
The independence of the judiciary was brought
into stark relief when 3 pro-Israel conservative judges, led by Robert Maxwell’s
former lawyer Dame Victoria Sharp, replaced
a more liberal judge, Martin Chamberlain, at the last minute in the Judicial
Review of the proscription of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ organisation.
The current legal
establishment will adapt themselves to the legal framework of whatever sort is
ordained by the rulers. Anybody expecting judges to defend liberties is likely
to be sorely disappointed. They will happily remove the ability of juries to
defend liberty too.
Democratic rights such as freedom of assembly
and speech were established in the teeth of opposition to them by His Majesty’s
loyal judges. If our few remaining democratic freedoms and civil liberties had
rested in the hands of the judges they would have disappeared long ago.
This government, like its predecessor, have
deliberately used the label ‘terrorist’ in order to suppress and close down
protest movements. In this the judiciary have played a supporting role.
Protest Outside the BBC at its Silence
As Professor John Dugard KC, a distinguished South
Africa International Lawyer and ad-hoc judge of the International Court of
Justice said:
Terrorism is an emotive word that has no place in
the assessment of the conduct of either a government or a resistance movement.
One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. Few would today label
members of the French resistance in World War II as “terrorist” and most would
have no hesitation in describing the Nazi forces as “terrorist”. Yet today most
western states refrain from describing the acts of government forces as acts of
terror but have no hesitation in so describing the acts of resistance movements
and other non-state actors.
We all know
what terrorism is. It is the planting of a bomb in July 2017 that killed 22 young
people at the Manchester Arena Ariana Grande Concert or the attack by ISIS
on the Bataclan concert in Paris that murdered some 100 people.
True to form - the BBC is REFUSING to cover the hunger strikes
It is the State
of Israel not Hamas or Hezbollah who are terrorists. Israel thinks nothing of
bombing schools and hospitals, shooting children in the head and dropping 2,000
lb bombs on refugee camps. Yet instead of condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza,
Starmer is helping to supply the weapons of mass murder that enable the Israeli
government to carry out its genocide.
The judiciary have proved their mettle by
remanding in custody the Filton 24 who have been charged with the non-terrorist
offences of criminal damage but have been held in conditions reserved for
terrorists. Their only ‘crime’ was to have attack an Elbit factory that was
manufacturing Quadcopters that are used by Israel after a missile or bomb
attack to pick off the survivors.
It is incumbent upon us to step up the fight
for the six hunger strikers, two of whom have already been hospitalised. That
is why it is disappointing that neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Zarah Sultana have
bothered to sign Early Day Motion 2386 calling on the government to intervene. Nor
have the two Muslim independent alliance MPs.
Free the Hunger Strikers
The political prisoners for Palestine currently on
hunger strike are (L to R):
T Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Jon Cink, Heba Muraisi,
Qesser Zuhrah and Amu Gib Their demands are:
1.An end to
censorship in jail. Prisoners’ letters and phone calls have been blocked.
2.Immediate
bail. Most have been held over the usual six-month time limit.
3.The right
to a fair trial. An end to government demonization and lies.
4.Deproscribe
Palestine Action and drop the “terror” link on these cases.
On Friday December 11th Clare Hinchcliffe of
the Filton 24 campaign will be speaking at a webinar organised by Jewish Network for Palestine along with Andrew Feinstein, Fahad Ansari, Huda Ammori, Richard
Medhurst and myself among other speakers.
I will be facing the same charges that Natalie faced,
namely ‘inviting support’ for a
proscribed organisation when my trial begins at Kingston Crown Court on January
5 next year.
It is essential that we step up the campaign to have the hunger
strikers freed. So far Palestine Solidarity Campaign has said nothing and done
nothing. The BBC has, as expected, refused to cover the hunger strikes.
Instead of Helping Implement the Proscription of Palestine
Action You Should Be Doing Your Best to Frustrate It - As Martin Luther King said:
Please note
the date is wrong but the link is correct.
It is
Friday 4 July 7.30 pm
Register Here
bit.ly/PalActionPlan
If you want to add your name to this Open Letter please let me know at azvsas@gmail.com
Monday 30 June, 2025
Dear
Ben Jamal,
I
write as one of the original founders of Palestine Solidarity Campaign although
I resigned in 2022 as a result of PSC’s abandonment of anti-Zionism in the new
Constitution which you supported.
I
have subsequently observed in wry amusement that you now claim to have been
anti-Zionist all along. However as long as you don’t call for the replacement of
a Jewish Supremacist state by a Unitary Democratic State
it is impossible to consider PSC anti-Zionist.
We
are living through the world’s first live streamed genocide in Gaza and the
fulfilment of Zionism’s Messianic End Times. US and British imperialism are
wedded to supporting Hitler’s
Bastard Offspring. Today when genocidal and exterminationist ideas are
commonplace in Israel and when nearly half of Israeli Jews support
exterminating the Palestinians of Gaza, the last thing we should do is retreat
in the face of government threats of proscription. Today the Nazi doctrine of
Death by Hunger is the official policy of the Israeli government.
Ben Jamal
Despite
the creation of a mass Palestine solidarity movement, both in Britain and
internationally, we have not been able to stop the Genocide. At best we have
been able to limit the carnage and force Zionism’s mafia bosses in Tel Aviv to
admit a bare minimum of aid.
PSC,
together with Stop the War Coalition and other groups, have organised
impressive demonstrations in London but by themselves theyhave failed to change
British government policy, wedded as it is to NATO and the alliance with the United
States. Today we are led by war criminals and we must act accordingly.
A
chance was missed in January when the Police banned the march from starting
from outside the BBC. The Metropolitan Police adopted wholesale the Zionist smear that the marches offended Jews worshipping in a distant synagogue,. Instead of saying
that you would call the march at the BBC regardless of the Police’s attempt at
sabotage you meekly complied by rearranging the starting point in Whitehall, which
enabled the Police to kettle, harass, arrest and attack protestors.
By
way of contrast, one of the most successful groups in the past five years has
been Palestine Action.It has been so
successful that the government has been forced to try and proscribe it as a
terrorist organisation. This is the first attempt to ban a protest group as
‘terrorists’. This attempt has been met with a wave of opposition from other
protestand civil liberties groups,
charities and academics reaching
into the Home Office itself.
If
anything represented a line in the sand then this is surely the issue – the proscription
of a protest group as ‘terrorists’. It is an assault on the most basic of rights
of a democratic society, the right to protest and freedom of speech, Articles
10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
As
you are aware, having often quoted them yourself, protest movements have a long
history of defying coercive and repressive laws when democratic rights and
basic freedoms were under attack. Slavery abolitionists, trade unionists,
Chartists and Suffragettes were prepared to put themselves on the line. As Martin
Luther King said
in his Letter from a Birmingham Gaol
‘one has a moral responsibility to
disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law
is no law at all."
A
law, which is passed, which erodes our democratic rights is an immoral law.
This was the position of the Suffragettes, the Chartists and all manner of
social movements in the past. This is a law fit for a Police State and yet you
insist that PSC branches and members meekly comply. In your ‘advice’
you write
PSC’s position is clear – we will not
allow any branch to jeopardise the organisation and the movement by
taking such actions in the name of PSC. It is vitally important for
all branches to understand this and to act accordingly – ensure that
no branch communications profess support for a proscribed
organisation, that no events are planned in support of a proscribed
organisation, and that no clothing or signs are used which profess support for
a proscribed organisation
The
Police, the Courts and the State have been implacably opposed to the Palestine
solidarity movement.Why?Because the West’s alliance with Israel is
based on strategic imperialist interests. Israel is the West’s attack dog. This
is why Palestine Action has been targeted. To the state Palestine Action’s
opposition to Britain’s military co-operation with Israel is no different from
that of Hamas. Hence the proposed proscription.
Whereas
Western regimes have supported the Zionists the people have supported the Palestinians
as opinion
polls have consistently demonstrated.The reception of the audience at Glastonbury to Kneecap and Bobby Vylan’s
chants
of ‘death to the IDF’ demonstrates who has the ear of the young.
We
see this in the decision
of the High Court on Monday approving the sale of F-35 components even
though the judges knew full well that they will be used to commit genocide.
The
Guardian reported
on Saturday that ‘concerns about
proscribing Palestine Action extended into the home secretary’s own
department.’ A senior civil servant was quoted as saying that ‘Home Office staff are concerned about the
“absurd” decision to ban Palestine Action under UK anti-terrorism laws.’
“From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging
concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible
it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists
everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow
of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?
If
ever there was a time for civil disobedience it is now. It is fine citing the
example of groups in the past which broke the law for the common good but there
comes a time when PSC has to decide which is more important – obedience to the
law or solidarity with the Palestinians. If PSCrefuses to contemplate civil
disobedience it is more of an NGO than a solidarity campaign.
The time to refuse to accede to the proscription of Palestine Action, whilst Zionist genocide
groups go unmolested, is now. If thousands of people openly defy the
proscription by refusing to accept Police State Starmer’s equation of Protest
Groups with Terrorism then the law willbecome inoperable.
‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under
the heaven.’
Now is that time but to the leadership of PSC,
afraid as you are of your own shadow, the idea of civil disobedience is something
you praise in history not something you yourselves participate in. Past heroism is easy to praise. Doing it yourself is something else.
PSC has never missed an opportunity to miss an
opportunity. Unlike the Anti-Apartheid Movement of the 1970s it is afraid to build
a popular movement that challenges the State’s support for genocide. The vast
majority of the population, both in Europe and the United States are utterly
sick of the genocide in Gaza yet PSC is afraid of breaking the law.
Now
is the ideal time to put a spoke into the Zionist wheel. Now is the time to
defy yet another anti-Palestinian law with both right and public opinion on our
side. Yet what do you do?You instruct
members and branches of PSC to fully implement the ban on supporting Palestine
Action if the law comes into effect. Let’s be blunt. You are doing the work of
the Zionists for them. You don’t know what to do with a mass movement except
march them up the hill and down again.
You
have no perspective beyond the accumulation of funds and the employment of more
staff.PSC has made over a million
pounds from Israel’s genocide in Gaza yet politically you are still as timid as
when, in 2022, you took anti-Zionism out of the constitution.
What
is your justification? The threat of 14 year prison sentences? I doubt if even
Lady Justice Carr, the most reactionary Chief Justice since Lord Denning would
dare impose such a sentence but more importantly public opinion would not stand
for it. The best way of avoiding prison sentences is mass defiance of the law
such that it will be impossible to implement it since it is clear to all that Palestine
Action is not a terrorist group. Embedding a lie within the law will not make
it true.
A mural was painted in Gaza over a year ago to thank us for taking direct action against Israel’s war machine.
Now, more than ever, Palestinians need us to step up.
Your
fear of challenging the unjust laws that Yvette Cooper is proposing stems from
your fear of upsetting the applecart. To be blunt you are afraid of challenging
the undemocratic British state and prefer to sacrifice the Palestinians
instead. It was not PSC but Palestine Action that had a mural painted for
it in Gaza.Palestine Action have
achieved in 5 years more than PSC have done in 40.
What is the purpose of PSC if not to support the Palestinians?Palestine Action has closed 3 Elbit factories
and premises in its five years of existence. It has posed a challenge to the
Israeli state’s operations in this country which PSC with all its staff and
resources have not been able to match. Hence its proscription.
I am not at all surprised by your behaviour. When Palestine Action was
formed in July 2020 PSC did all that it could to strangle it at birth. Your ‘legal
advice’ then was a carbon copy of your advice today. You wrote:
PSC has sought legal advice about the potential
liabilities arising from the commission of acts of criminal damage of high
monetary levels ... If the value of the damage caused exceeds £5000 a person
can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited
fine.
These liabilities potentially extend to both
individuals encouraging or assisting criminal acts (including, for example,
providing financial support), and organisations, including PSC branches that
offered encouragement or assistance.
These concerns are not raised because PSC, or the
BDS Movement is opposed to any form of direct action. Instead, they are raised
because of the strategic and legal risks associated with the type of action
being conducted by the group.
If supporters
of the Palestinians had taken your advice and if members of PSC had gone along
with it then Palestine Action would not have existed. You were forced
to change course because PSC members and supporters disregarded your advice. Today
you write
that:
Publicly inviting support, for example
through a social media post, wearing clothing which indicates support, or
arranging a meeting where a member of a proscribed organisation speaks or a
speech indicating support for the organisation is given are all criminal
offences which can carry prison sentences of up to 14 years
That
is true, theoretically and that is why mass
action in defiance of this law is necessary and should be organised, with PSC’s
help if possible, without it if necessary. The proscription of Palestine Action
can only be challenged by mass defiance, not the timidity of PSC under your
tutelage. PSC itself should be taking the lead instead of trying to frighten
its members. There is nothing stopping national PSC declaring that its support
for PA remains unchanged.
You and the leadership of PSC have always been hostile to PA because you saw it as a competitor. In January
2022 when PA achieved its first victory with the closure of Elbit’s Oldham
factory PSC was eager
to claim the credit. You issued a statement which said:
We pay tribute to all
those who have campaigned since Elbit Systems purchased the site in 2007,
including many members of the Manchester PSC branch
‘I have to pay tribute to whoever drafted the
statement. It must have taken some effort to draft a statement welcoming the
closure of the factory without at the same time mentioning the group which was
responsible for the campaign that was responsible for this success.
Because
British imperialism supports Zionism and Israel there is no legal way to
prevent the state supporting Israel short of mass action. That is why defiance
of the law is an essential component of any solidarity action. Of course that
does not mean we defy the law on any and every occasion but we choose the time
and place. This is such an occasion. The classifying of a protest group as a terrorist
group breaks new ground. It is a red line for more than just the Palestine
solidarity movement. It has united Palestine solidarity supporters with
virtually the whole liberal and even not so liberal establishment. It is
indefensible. If any issue was likely to be won by a refusal to cowtow to the
Police and State this is the time.
Your real
reasons for opposing a refusal to implement the law have nothing to do with
possible prison sentences for those who defy the law. They have everything to
do with your empire building and the cushy salaries that comes with it.
You say
that ‘The people of Palestine are depending on us now, during their darkest hour, and we cannot afford to let them down.’ Yet by colluding
in the implementation of this law that is precisely what you are doing. You are
helping the British state implement this police state law.
