Two years after the start of the genocide and two months into a phony ceasefire, Palestine remains a political issue that will not and cannot go away. No amount of Zionist propaganda or attempted containment by the more respectable wing of the British solidarity movement can prevent people continuing to speak up and act in solidarity with the risen people of Palestine. NICKI JAMESON reports.
Hiding behind the fig-leaf of the recognition of a subservient, neutered Palestinian state and fooling no-one, the Labour government continues to stand squarely on the side of the Zionist oppressors. Like its Conservative predecessor, it is therefore continually searching for novel ways to try to silence those who stand up for full Palestinian self-determination.
Anti-terror law attacks human rights
The combined powers of protest and terrorism legislation are already being widely used to attack pro-Palestine protest. Our comrade Sarah (one of the ‘SOAS 2’) has been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act, which is punishable by a prison sentence of up to 14 years, and faces a trial at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in June 2026. Sarah’s alleged crime is to have made a speech at her university on 9 October 2023, in which by referencing an occupied people’s lawful right to resist she supposedly encouraged support for a proscribed organisation.
On 20 November 2025 the Defend SOAS 2 campaign organised a protest outside the Supreme Court, where judges were considering an appeal from two other protesters charged with similar offences to Sarah. The case centres around the relationship between anti-terror legislation and the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. A judgement is expected in early 2026.
There are currently 32 pro-Palestine activists remanded in custody on charges related to direct action against the British factories of Israeli and US weapons manufacturers and a British air force base – all targets related to the merciless bombardment of Gaza by the Zionist war machine. Six of these prisoners are currently on hunger strike (see page 14). The trial of the first six in the Filton 24 case began on 17 November at Woolwich Crown Court. The remaining defendants face a lengthy wait in prison before their cases come to court. Another 20-30 people are on bail awaiting trial on similar charges relating to various sites of weapons production or the companies that financially support the genocide.
Since July when Palestine Action was proscribed, thousands of people have been arrested across Britain and the north of Ireland on protests organised by Defend our Juries for holding placards reading ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action’. To date 254 people have been charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act, which carries a prison sentence of up to six months. FRFI supporter Fiona Maclean’s case will be the first to be heard at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 March 2026. Fiona spoke to the protest outside the Supreme Court, detailing British complicity in Zionist war crimes and how ‘they are using Terrorism laws to try to silence opposition to this genocide’, and making it clear that ‘they will not silence us’.
Growing powers of interference
The past decade has seen a massive rise in the powers accorded both to police forces to clamp down on expressions of dissent and political protest, and to other bodies to play a policing role using mechanisms such as Prevent and the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants.
- In 2019 the already draconian Terrorism Act 2000 was amended to include charges of ‘recklessly’ inviting support for a proscribed organisation, alongside the existing charge of doing so deliberately.
- In 2022 the Conservative government passed the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which expanded the definition of ‘serious disruption’ to make it far easier for police forces to put stringent conditions on protests. The same definition was incorporated in further provisions in the Public Order Act 2023.
- In July 2025 then Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper used the powers of the Terrorism Act to outlaw direct action group Palestine Action. This is currently subject to challenge in the High Court, with the judgement from the judicial review application heard on 27-29 November expected in the coming months.
- On 4 November the government tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill currently going through Parliament, with the aim of allowing the police to consider ‘cumulative disruption’ (ie whether there have been other such events in the same location, irrespective of whether they are organised or attended by any of the same people) when imposing public order conditions on marches and static protests.
- On 25 November Justice Secretary David Lammy announced plans to massively restrict the right to trial by jury, so that anyone facing a prospective prison sentence of up to five years will have their case heard by a single judge.
Following the October 2025 incident at a Manchester synagogue, in which three people were killed, two by the police, Prime Minister Keir Starmer made histrionic noises about banning ‘inflammatory chants’ such as ‘Globalise the Intifada’ and ‘Death, death to the IDF’ but so far this has not resulted in any actual amendments to the law. Nonetheless, Starmer’s posturing has had repercussions, as did that of Conservative Justice Minister Suella Braverman on similar lines in 2023-4. At that time four FRFI supporters were among those arrested for using the slogan ‘Victory to the Intifada’. None were ever charged with any crime, but the mere fact of arrest and detention for the use of words has a ‘chilling effect’ and encourages protesters to self-police their slogans and censor their solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. On 11 November 2025, a man was arrested outside a Bob Vylan gig in Kentish Town, for using the ‘Death to the IDF’ slogan, first popularised at Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury appearance in June.
Tentacles spreading
In addition to all these cases of people arrested while protesting in solidarity with Palestine, there are a growing number of arrests and other forms of targeting of people who are not out protesting but are doing their jobs as lawyers, journalists, teachers and medical professionals. The tentacles of repression are spreading ever wider, tightening their grip everywhere.
On 17 September, solicitor Fahad Ansari lodged judicial review proceedings against the Home Secretary and the Chief Constable for North Wales, following his detention under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act on 6 August as he returned from a family holiday in Ireland. Schedule 7 is a draconian power which allows for detention and interrogation at ports of entry, and under which the usual rights to remain silent, have a lawyer present during questioning and withhold access to your devices absent a court order are disapplied. The use of such powers is even more pernicious when applied, as in this case, to the work phone of a practising solicitor, whose communications with clients are supposed to be protected from such interference by ‘legal privilege’.
It is clear that Ansari was targeted because his most well-known client is Palestinian liberation organisation Hamas, who instructed him to challenge its proscription in Britain under the Terrorism Act. That case is currently aw-aiting directions for a Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission hearing.
On 23 October the High Court refused to grant an interim injunction preventing the police from ‘examining, sifting, or sharing the copy’ of Ansari’s work mobile telephone pending the resolution of this claim. He told a protest outside the court:
‘The past 25 years of “war on terror” have conditioned the British public to accept secret evidence in our courts, to accept an abandonment of the rule of law… It is not the first time the British state has identified national security lawyers by their clients. It happened in Ireland 35 years ago… When we are asked to trust the process, we can’t, because Britain has a history of targeting lawyers who are representing clients they do not like… it is harassment, it is intimidation, designed to prevent lawyers like me taking on cases like I do.’
Own goals
The state is not getting things all its own way, however. On 19 November Cardiff Crown Court overturned the convictions against Ayeshah Behit and Hida Ahmed, who in June were found guilty of harassing Pontypridd Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones a year earlier by questioning her over her stance on Gaza during the general election campaign. A week earlier Shoda Rakal, from the group Women of Colour, who had been convicted in April of assaulting a Zionist agitator on the London weekly protest by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, also had her conviction overturned on appeal.
Most galling, however, for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), was the collapse of the prosecution of the ‘Gal Gadot 8’, eight activists who had protested against the filming of The Runner, a drama featuring the Israeli actress, Gal Gadot. Gadot is a former IDF soldier and poster-girl and a fervent support of the Zionist state. The eight were initially arrested for harassment but subsequently charged under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992. This clause was designed to criminalise picketing in industrial disputes, but its use here was essentially widened to encompass any action connected to people in their workplace. The trial had not even got underway before the presiding magistrate due to hear the case told the CPS that there was no prospect of success. Pedro Blattmann, one of those acquitted, told the protest at the Supreme Court: ‘This is a big win for the whole movement because, people work everywhere and by finding somebody guilty of protesting in a public space there would be grounds to stop any protest, as there will always be someone working in the vicinity’.
Supporting Palestine is not a crime
The next few months will see rulings in both the judicial review of the proscription of Palestine Action and the Supreme Court case examining the way in which the Terrorism Act infringes the right to freedom of speech. These cases will in turn impact on the planned trials of the Filton 24, SOAS 2, Defend our Juries activists and many more. Whatever the outcomes in court, protest for Palestine will continue on the streets, via direct action and within the prisons. Solidarity with Palestine will not be criminalised out of existence.
Free the Filton 24!
Drop the charges against the SOAS 2 and all who stand up for Palestine!
Scrap the Terrorism Act!
Solidarity with Palestine is not a crime!
