Journalist Richard Medhurst
Courts and politicians in Britain and Germany are turning the screw on people who speak out for Palestine.
Journalist Richard Medhurst revealed this week that British police arrested him under the Terrorism Act just after he landed at London Heathrow Airport on 15 August. He said, “I was immediately escorted off the plane by six police officers who were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft.
“They arrested me under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act of 2000. They accused me of allegedly ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation’, but wouldn’t explain what this meant.
“I get the feeling that those like myself who are speaking up and reporting on the situation in Palestine are being targeted.”
Medhurst is a prominent independent journalist exposing and opposing the war crimes of Britain, the United States and Israel. He has over one million followers on social media.
Medhurst added, “I criticised the Terrorism Act before getting on the plane, then got arrested under the Terrorism Act upon landing.
Police took his phone and he was not allowed to contact his family. At the police station, Medhurst said, “All of my journalistic equipment and devices were seized. These included phones, SIM cards, wireless microphones, microphones, headphones, even my shoelaces.”
He was held for nearly 24 hours, including in solitary confinement. In a video on Twitter, Medhurst said, “I categorically and utterly reject all the accusations by the police. I am not a terrorist.
“Both of my parents won Nobel Peace Prizes for their work as United Nations peacekeepers. They had a tremendous effect on my world view and outlook and instilled in me the importance of diplomacy, international law and peace.”
He will not know for three months whether the police are going to prosecute him under the terror laws.
Medhurst said, “Palestine and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remain the most pressing news stories in the world.
“However, it seems that any statement, no matter how innocent, how factual and well-intentioned, can be skewed and twisted into an offence of the highest order. This is precisely the danger and the absurdity of the Terrorism Act that I have always sought to impress upon the public, long before I ever became a victim of it myself. It is out of control. It has no place in a democracy.”
Meanwhile, a court jailed five Palestine Action campaigners on Wednesday after they occupied Thales’ weapons factory in Glasgow.
Stuart Bretherton and Eva Simmons, both 25, Calum Lacy, 23, Erica Hygate, 23 and Sumaya Javaid, 22, scaled the Thales UK building in Govan in June 2022.
For disrupting Scotland’s complicity genocide, Sheriff John McCormick locked up three activists for 12 months, one of 14 months and one for 16 months.
They will serve half of that time in prison. There are now 16 Palestine Action political prisoners, detained for trying to stop a genocide.
Thales is one of the world’s largest arms companies—producing armoured vehicles, missile systems and military UAVs (drones). Thales works in partnership with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons company, to produce military drones.
McCormick said it had been a “difficult” case to sentence, with the group described as “young people motivated to protest”.
But he was determined to clamp down on future protests. He said he wanted to “send a signal that such unlawful and reckless actions will attract custodial sentences where appropriate.”
Write to the prisoners via tinyurl.com/PA0824
Meanwhile, in Germany on Thursday this week, Palestine activist Daria was to face her first hearing at a Berlin court.
She is accused of “circulation of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations”. That’s because she chanted the slogan, “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” at a demonstration on 9 March.
At the last minute on Thursday, the court cancelled the hearing and postponed it to 11 November.
It is one of many cases where German authorities are trying to criminalise this slogan.
Nadija Samour is a lawyer from the European Legal Support Centre who is representing Daria. She said, ‘’This is an attack on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. It is a highly political case.
“The court might seek to forward the case to a higher court by imposing a financial penalty on Daria in this first instance. We will then definitely appeal and expect to win at a higher tribunal.”
A similar case at the beginning of this month saw a 22-year-old activist convicted of condoning a crime for chanting the same slogan. Police had arrested Ava Moayeri, a German-Iranian national, just days after Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October. She was accused of “condoning the assault by Hamas” when she recited the chant on an 11 October protest in Berlin.
The presiding judge said the chant had “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”. Daria said of this week’s trial, “The risk of a penalty fine is obviously not the most relevant consequence here.
“Police are using the quite severe offence charges to justify brutal violence against protesters.
“In the past few months, dozens of people have been beaten to a state of unconsciousness during police crackdowns and had to be hospitalized with severe injuries.
“Some have had their homes raided just for saying, ‘From the river to the sea.’
“The criminalisation of the slogan is clearly an attempt to generate consent for the persecution of the Palestine solidarity movement and ultimately for the genocide in Palestine.”
In November last year German interior minister Nancy Faeser declared the slogan illegal and punishable with a prison sentence of up to three years by decree. But is usually met with a fine upon conviction.
The ministry of the interior is also now preparing a harsh migration law. It would effectively end free speech for people without full citizenship rights—and pave the way for extensive online surveillance of migrants.
Activists plan to support Daria at her trial this week. At a previous hearing in a different case on 6 August, a big group gathered in support. When the defendant left the court, dozens shouted in solidarity, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The best defence against state attacks is to keep protesting for Palestine and not to be intimidated.
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