In proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, along with criminalizing many of those who have challenged this government policy decision, the British Government has opened itself up to criticism and ridicule. In the past few months alone, there have been over 2,000 politically motivated arrests, mostly of elderly people who have held up placards saying that they ‘Oppose Genocide’ and ‘Support Palestine Action’. Lawyers, journalists, and doctors caught up in this dragnet of invented criminality for expressing views in support of Palestine have faced arrests and interrogation under counterterrorism laws. Particularly absurd was the arrest of someone for wearing a T-shirt that read, ‘I support Plasticine Action’.
Freedom of thought, of speech, and political action is under attack in Britain. However, this suppression of free speech is selective and highly politicized. It is okay to publicly offer verbal support for Netanyahu and his genocidal regime as was recently demonstrated when a man, (clearly trying to emphasize this point), confronted the police by openly chanting; ‘I support Netanyahu and I support the genocide of Palestinians’. The individual concerned was told that he wouldn’t be arrested because ‘in Britain we have the right to free speech and free expression’. Those protesting the genocide alongside him could only smile, since arrests were taking place within their midst of people voicing opposition to genocide and expressing their support for movements that carry out direct action. The man in question admitted to his audience that he opposed genocide and acted in the manner he did to demonstrate the double standards of the actions of the police.
We are at a pivotal juncture in British society. Do we risk our own liberty by standing up for freedom of speech and supporting the rights of Palestinians to live in freedom and dignity? Do we stand up for our own rights to take a moral stance against the influence of a foreign hostile force, or do we ignore the capture of our State and allow ourselves to sink further into despotism?
What the British Government has done, through the misuse of the terrorism act, is to expose their disregard for the rights of the British people in favor of supporting a foreign power that is carrying out a genocide on the Palestinian population in Gaza. In this crackdown, people opposing a crime that should be abhorrent to anyone with a modicum of morality, the government and police have displayed an authoritarianism that is reminiscent of the crackdowns on free speech and protests that occurred during the beginning stages of Stalin’s Soviet State purges and 1930s/40s Nazi Germany.
Most dictatorships and tyrannical governments of the past have considered themselves legal in the narrow sense of the law. They have adopted tyranny above any recognition of justice, democracy, and blatantly ignored the ‘spirit of the law’, which relates to justice and honesty. What we are witnessing today in Britain is little different from the strategies used by past tyrannical regimes – the Kafkaesque secret courts, the enactment of new laws, and the proscribing of any group or movement that opposes them, as terrorists. Of particular concern is that these charges are applied with increasing severity for the benefit of a foreign state against those who oppose its Zionist aims in occupied Palestine. By using Parliament to enact these Zionist US/Israeli-inspired terrorist laws against domestic and foreign resistance movements, the British Government attempts to justify its criminalization of those who demonstrate support for the ‘proscribed’ resistance movements.
However, legal and law are not necessarily the same thing. Setting aside considerations of morality, under international law, there are legal obligations that place a responsibility on States and individuals to do everything within their power to resist unjust laws. Under international law, occupation and genocide are crimes. In fact, genocide is considered to be one of the most heinous crimes a state can commit. Taking action to frustrate the execution of genocide, even action that falls into what might otherwise be considered illegal, is justified.
The persistent mass of people gathering globally to demonstrate support for the rights of Palestinians to live without fear and starvation has sent a chilling message to the establishment that Israel has lost the narrative. The veil has been lifted on this racist, brutal, genocidal ideology underpinning Zionist aims. Israel’s claim of victimhood and of defending itself has collapsed. States that occupy other people do not have the right to defend themselves against those resisting their brutal occupation. Buying TikTok and paying $7,000 a post to influencers willing to put forward Israeli propaganda isn’t going to change this.
However, given the brevity of the crime, the imminent starvation and daily toll on Palestinian lives, the urgency of events persuaded many that it was time to go beyond marching and do whatever was within their power to prevent this genocide. Just as the suffragettes and other protest movements ultimately turned to direct action as a means of bringing about change rather than requesting change, Palestine Action chose to directly target the weapons manufacturers who were producing the armory that kills Palestinians.
In underestimating the support that direct action for Palestinians has in the U.K. and the abuse of the terrorism Act, the government has lost legitimacy and exposed how deeply entrenched they are in a hostile Zionist ideology.