Like Hastings 3, journalists arrested for supporting Palestine

Being moved by the plight of Gazans is not a response without consequences. Among those who found out the hard way are the Hastings 3, charged in the course of a peaceful protest against an arms supplier to Israel. So are a number of journalists and writers who have been arrested under terrorism laws after commenting on the issue. A parliamentary petition to end the threat of such actions to free speech has been launched. Nick Terdre reports.

The Hastings 3, who last week were found not guilty of aggravated trespass during a peaceful protest at the local arms supplier General Dynamics, faced charges under Section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which carries a maximum tariff of a three-month jail term and £2,500 fine – probably less for first-time offenders.

Much more serious sanctions – up to 15 years in jail – hang over a number of journalists and pro Palestinian activists arrested for their writings on Gaza under the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006.  A detailed briefing note has been supplied to HOT by John Oates, who has launched a parliamentary petition on the matter.

Tony Greenstein, an academic historian, blogger and founding member of Palestinian Solidarity Action, appeared at the Old Bailey on 31 January charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. He was at home on 20 December 2023 when police arrived, seized his phone and laptop and held him for nine hours, after which he was released without charge. His equipment has not been returned.

He has since been charged under the 2006 act with inviting “support for a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas.” In a blog he commented: “This is a blatant attempt to criminalise support for any anti-colonial or resistance organisation of the oppressed. Israel is in an illegal occupation of Gaza, as it has been for 58 years but any expression for armed resistance against Israel’s military and genocidal violence is a criminal offence.”

Richard Medhurst, who writes principally for the investigative website The Grayzone, was arrested under Section 12 of the 2000 act on arriving at Heathrow on 15 August last, and accused of “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation.” He was held for 24 hours before being released on bail, and all his journalistic equipment confiscated.

Journalist unions intervene

His treatment prompted the general secretaries of the National Union of Journalists, Michelle Stanistreet, and International Federation of Journalists, Anthony Bellanger, to write to Matt Jukes, the head of Counter Terrorism in Britain, to “express grave concern over the apparent misuse of the Terrorism Act 2000 to detain and arrest journalists, thus undermining media freedom.”

Medhurst’s arrest had shocked journalists based in the UK and around the world, they wrote. “Powers contained in anti-terror legislation must always be deployed proportionately, yet actions by police in an apparent crackdown on genuine journalistic activity cause significant cause for concern over efforts to stifle press freedom.”

Journalists Craig Murray, Asa Winstanley and Sarah Wilkinson have also been arrested on similar grounds in the last couple of years. The most egregious episode, according to the briefing note,  concerns Wilkinson, a 61-year-old, whose house was invaded by armed counter-terrorism police, some wearing balaclavas, who manhandled her, handcuffed her and then drove her around in an erratic manner in the back of a police van, causing her injury as she was unable to stop herself being thrown about.

Meanwhile her house was ransacked and her mother’s ashes in a funerary urn desecrated, while money was taken along with her passport and items hidden in obscure places.

She described her ordeal in an interview with the Crispin Flintoff show.

“The inescapable conclusion is that the purpose of these anti-terrorism raids is indeed to intimidate those publicising such events to a wide audience, and to suppress inconvenient truths at odds with an arguably unethical foreign policy,” comments the briefing note. “The raids and detentions were quite clearly also fishing expeditions to gain intelligence.”

Parliamentary petition

Oates, who previously lived in Hastings, has now launched a parliamentary petition headed “Repeal the 2000 and 2006 Terrorism Acts and review other legislation.”

The justifying text states: “We argue that since their inception the Acts have been improperly applied by law enforcement agencies because they have been poorly understood at operational level, due in part to ambiguity in their terms, and the scope of their application. We do not believe that the Acts are fit for purpose and think that people have been improperly detained, including journalists. We believe that by definition anti-terrorism legislation is about protecting civil liberties and free speech, not suppressing it.”

When this article went to press, the petition had gained almost 950 signatures. If it reaches 10,000, the government is obliged to respond, while at 100,000, a parliamentary debate would be triggered.

“I would submit that it is crucial that these arrests, and specifically the legislation which has enabled them, are challenged, not least against a background where in the USA and Europe we are seeing the resurrection of the kind of reactionary forces which in the 1930’s gave rise to Franco, Mussolini and of Hitler,” Oates told HOT.

Since coming to power, the Starmer government has revealed an authoritarian streak, refusing to repeal the spate of illiberal legislation introduced by recent Conservative governments  against, for example, environmental activists. This now includes giving free rein to the police in their pursuit of journalists giving voice to their support for Palestinian rights.

If the case against Greenstein succeeds, similar charges may be pressed against other journalists who take a critical approach to the government’s support for the Israeli state, including those mentioned above.

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