Sussex police under fire as #Houmous1 has case dropped

Local nurse Chris Dindar is demanding answers after facing down a criminal prosecution for alleged crimes against houmous which he says was politically motivated. Hastings & District Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s chair Katy Colley reports.

The 55-year-old from Hastings in East Sussex was charged with criminal damage in April last year for holding a peaceful protest at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in February where he drew attention to their sale of Sabra houmous.

Sabra has been the target of an international consumer boycott for years as it was then owned by Strauss group which funds the Israeli military, currently in the dock at the world court for carrying out genocide in Gaza.

He pled not guilty to the charge at Hastings Magistrates Court in October last year and the case was due to be heard at Brighton Magistrates Court in March.

But last month, nearly a year after the protest, Chris was informed the CPS did not intend to pursue the case as there was ‘not enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction’.

‘I’m so angry,’ said Chris. ‘The real crime was the way that Sainsbury’s and Sussex Police chose to weaponise the law to try and intimidate me for exposing complicity in genocide and standing up for Palestinian rights. The whole episode has been exhausting and deeply stressful.’

Dad-of-two Chris said the manner of the investigation was traumatic for his whole family.

‘Having three plainclothes detectives barge into my house at eight in the morning, treating me like some sort of dangerous criminal, while my other half and my daughter stood there in their night clothes, shaking, then being taken to a police cell for hours was appalling.

‘They violated my home and my family, going mob-handed through our property, apparently looking for pro-Palestinian paraphernalia, sifting through my recently late mother-in-law’s protest artwork, asking: “Oh, what have we got here then?” Their attitude was disgusting. We were all traumatised by that invasion.’

‘So ridiculous’

Chris says that when he was released under investigation he was convinced the charge was not going to go anywhere.

‘It was so ridiculous, and it was such an obvious, pathetic attempt to silence pro-Palestinian protests so I was gobsmacked when they charged me.’

The charge came during the height of Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza – which has killed over 62,000 Palestinians and left the tiny besieged strip of land uninhabitable – when a number of pro-Palestinian journalists and activists were being charged with criminal proceedings, as well as three local activists who were charged with aggravated trespass for their part in a peaceful protest at General Dynamics arms factory.

The ‘Hastings Three’ were all acquitted during a trial in Brighton last month.

‘A significant amount of humous’

Sussex Police have defended their actions in a statement, claiming they were ‘proportionate’ in the circumstances.

The statement read: ‘We responded to a report of criminal damage after a significant amount of humous was removed from shelves at Sainsbury’s in St Leonards on 23 February and 10 March 2024. The products were unfit for consumption as a result, causing a financial loss to the business.

‘CCTV led officers to identify a suspect and plain-clothed officers attended his address at around 8.20am on 8 April, arresting him outside of the home at his request. Officers were then led into the address, which they searched and seized a mobile phone for further enquiries to be completed, as is standard practice in order to preserve and gather evidence.

‘The actions of officers at the time, and the subsequent decision to present a case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), have been reviewed and were considered proportionate in the circumstances. We are aware that the CPS has since dropped the charges.’

‘Trying to silence and repress’

But Chris says the police actions were far from proportionate, given the trivial nature of the alleged offence. ‘It’s clear the message has been coming from higher up, from the Home Office, which is actively trying to silence and repress Palestinian activism,’ he said.

‘We’ve seen that over the last year there’s been a huge crackdown on peaceful protests, particularly when it comes to Palestine, particularly the last march in London, and the police and the courts have been used as political tools to intimidate people into silence, whether through heavy-handed arrests like mine, or demonstrations with punitive bail conditions or dragging activists like me through the courts on spurious charges.

‘If you challenge corporation or state complicity in Israel’s crimes, whether you call out those companies individually or the ones that profit from the occupation and apartheid, or you’re protesting arms manufacturers or simply showing solidarity, you’re treated as a threat.

‘They want people to be too afraid to take action, but that strategy is backfiring, because every time they try to suppress our movement, it only exposes their desperation, and it certainly strengthens my resolve. I think it probably strengthens our collective resolve to carry on and double down on our efforts.’

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

Chris says he has stepped up his campaigning in recent months, taking a lead within the local movement to draw attention to BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), particularly consumer boycott across a range of goods and outlets.

‘BDS remains one of the most effective tools that we have to resist the corporation’s complicity with apartheid, occupation and war crimes, companies like Sainsbury’s that stock products from firms that profit from the theft of Palestinian land and the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.

‘By highlighting that and by refusing to buy those products, we send a really powerful message that we won’t be complicit in genocide, war crimes, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and displacement.

‘I feel particularly strongly as a healthcare professional. Who knows how many nurses and doctors have been slaughtered, sniped, bombed, set on fire and tortured by Israel this past year? I’ve worked all over the world as a nurse, including in the Middle East, and human life is sacrosanct and to be protected at all costs. When the person doing that is the one that’s targeted, or the profession that’s doing that is the profession that’s targeted, that’s chilling.’

Our friends in al-Mawasi

Chris says he would like to thank all the people who supported him.

‘Being part of the local PSC group has really got me through the last year,’ he said. ‘Without that solidarity and support, it would have been a very different scenario. I’d also like to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who donated to my defence fund.

‘It was so heartening to feel the solidarity and support from the scores of people who donated and I am sure they will be happy that what’s left of the fund will be going directly to support our friends in Al-Mawasi, Gaza. Our town has long-standing friendship links with the people there and any defence costs that are returned to me by the court will also be going to Al-Mawasi.

‘In which case, if this prosecution achieves anything at all, it would be to help to raise funds for our friends in Al Mawasi. I haven’t seen a single supermarket do anything to help the people of Gaza to date. Shame on them all.’

Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity: www.hastingspalestinecampaign.org

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