Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! comrades who were accused of inciting racial hatred by the use of the slogan ‘Victory to the Intifada’ have been exonerated. This call for solidarity with the uprisings of Palestinians against Zionist oppression is entirely legitimate and in no way criminal.
On Saturday 13 January 2024, three comrades on the Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! contingent on a Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstration in central London were arrested for using the term ‘Victory to the Intifada’ in chants or on placards.
The police spuriously claimed that this was an offence under section 18 of the 1986 Public Order Act, which outlaws the use of ‘threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour’ or the display of ‘any written material which is threatening, abusive or insulting’ with the intent to ‘stir up racial hatred’. This offence carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
Yet none of the cases ever made it to court and none of the comrades were charged.
Intifada = uprising
The word ‘Intifada’ is an Arabic word meaning ‘shaking off’ or ‘rebellion’. The term came into popular use around the time of the First Intifada, which began in 1987, a huge popular uprising of Palestinian people against Israeli occupation, violence and repression.
The police in action on 13 January claimed that ‘this is a phrase used by banned organisations in Palestine’. In the police station, comrades were grilled by officers with questions such as ‘Do you agree it could be a call for global attack on Jewish people or people who support Israel?’ One comrade was informed ‘this has come from above’, as they were led to their cell for the night.
In November 2023 another FRFI comrade had been arrested for making a speech involving the words ‘Victory to the Intifada’, and in December 2023, nine people were arrested at a squat in central London, for hanging a banner with the words ‘Globalise the intifada’. This was part of a hysterical and reactionary attempt by the government, to clamp down on Palestinian flags and other chants like ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’. Two other protesters were also arrested in February 2024 for placards saying ‘Long Live the Intifada’ and ‘Intifada ‘til Victory’. None of these cases have resulted in any charges or court action.
FRFI has used the slogan ‘Victory to the Intifada’ as a campaigning title for our Palestine solidarity work since as early as 2000, when, with other organisations, we began protests demanding a boycott of Marks and Spencer in response to its continued trade and political support for Israel. This campaign was a feature along Oxford Street for over a decade, standing its ground against attacks from Zionist gangs and the police. Aggressive as both these groups were at times, there was no attempt to criminalise the slogan.
Operation Brocks and the Zionist tweeters
The 13 January 2024 arrests were part of Operation Brocks, a plan involving thousands of police officers drawn in by the politically ambitious pro-Zionist Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman from all over the country, to form a ‘Bronze unit’ set up to target pro-Palestine protesters. A freedom of information request to the Met Police reported that in the months of January to March 2024, the cost for this police presence was £4.2m to £4.7m per month (7 October to 15 December: £20.7m).
During the months following the 7 October 2023 uprising by the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation, millions of people in Britain poured onto the streets to support the Palestinian cause and oppose Zionism. As these protests swelled, the police unsuccessfully tried to ban protesters from using the chant ‘Palestine will be free – From the River to the Sea’. The police efforts to target and arrest protesters were aided by Zionists and racists using X (formerly Twitter), including the Washington-based ‘Harry’s Place’, which has long targeted the RCG for their actions in solidarity with Palestine. Zionists worked undercover on the ground at protests, taking photos and videos of Palestine protesters at demos, posting them on X or directly to the police who swiftly acted on their behalf.
When it became clear that ‘From the River to the Sea’ was not illegal and that the suggestion from Braverman of banning the internationally recognised Palestinian flag was ludicrous, Zionist twitter users started flagging up other slogans which they claimed were racist or equalled support for banned organisations. All manner of people who took placards to protests or chanting slogans were caught up in this net, including Marieha Hussein, who in September 2024 was cleared by Westminster Magistrates Court of a racially aggravated public order offence. Her ‘crime’ had been to take a placard depicting Braverman and then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as coconuts to a Palestine protest in November 2023. The court heard evidence that it was again Harry’s Place which had photographed Marieha, posted her photo on X and tagged in the Met Police.
Marieha’s arrest and prosecution garnered a huge wave of outrage and solidarity, with big demonstrations outside the court on both days of her trial. For all those arrested on the Palestine protests over the last year, there has been police station and court support from the Green and Black Cross and Netpol groups. In the RCG we have staged protests at police stations on every occasion on which anyone in our contingents has been arrested, and supported those called by other organisations. We have the back-up of an excellent lawyer who is always on call when needed. Throughout all this, there has been no support or solidarity whatsoever from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which instead has been anxious to distance itself from any arrests, and in particular those involving purported support for the armed resistance movement fighting back against Zionist occupation and genocide.[i]
After her acquittal, Marieha told the supporters gathered at the court: ‘… this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities… Despite this trial, I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice to defend Palestine’.
By August 2024 all three of those arrested on 13 January had been informed that there would be ‘no further action’ from the Crown Prosecution Service. The arrests were political policing designed by the pro-Zionist British government to intimidate protesters away from showing their solidarity explicitly with the Palestinian resistance and carried out in cahoots with right-wing on-line Zionist agitators. Their attempts have failed and protesters across Britain continue to chant ‘Victory to the Intifada!’ in solidarity with the struggle in Palestine.
FREE PALESTINE!
VICTORY TO THE INTIFADA!
[i] See https://revolutionarycommunist.org/britain/police-prisons/policing-palestine-solidarity-subversion-and-repression/
