The following open letter to the Crown Prosecution Service has been signed by individuals and organisations in solidarity with the SOAS 2. It is an open document and if you want your name or organisation to be added to the signatories, please contact [email protected]. A change.org petition in solidarity with the SOAS 2 can be found here.
A SOAS University of London student, Sarah, has been charged, and another SOAS student has been arrested, under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act for ‘inviting support for a proscribed organisation’. Their supposed crime is to have made speeches on behalf of the SOAS Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! society in October 2023 supporting the Palestinian right to self-determination. This is an intensification of suppression of free speech on the issue of Palestine. We demand that the Crown Prosecution Service drops all charges against Sarah and discontinues all its investigations in relation to alleged Terrorism Act offences against the other student.
The right to express any support for the Palestinian struggle for national liberation is at stake in this case. The alleged Terrorism offence carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison.
On 4 March 2025, Sarah was charged with inviting support for a proscribed organisation under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. In October 2023, online Zionists tagged the Metropolitan Police in a video allegedly of Sarah giving a speech at SOAS University the same month, expressing support for the right of Palestinians to armed resistance against occupation and ethnic cleansing by the Israeli state. Under pressure from the Zionist lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel, the Met Police arrested her in a dawn raid on 31 January 2024. The police and Crown Prosecution Service waited more than 13 months after the arrest to bring charges. On the same day Sarah was charged, another SOAS student was also arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act.
This calculated targeting of two young Palestine protesters is an attempt to intimidate and censor any expression of support for the Palestinian freedom struggle. It is an attack on the entire solidarity movement.
United Nations General Assembly resolution 37/43 of 3 December 1982 and the Geneva Conventions Protocol 1 explicitly give the Palestinians and all oppressed peoples the right to resist their oppressors by any available means including armed struggle. A conviction in this case would have devastating consequences for freedom of speech in Britain. It would mean that anyone expressing support for the right of oppressed peoples to resist racism, colonialism and occupation could be tried under terrorism legislation.
Resistance is not terrorism! Drop the charges now!
Signed:
- 12 October Platform
- Alkarama, Palestinian Women’s Movement
- Bartolina Sisa Resistance
- Built on Blood
- Communist Refoundation Aotearoa
- Consistent Democrats
- Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK
- Latin Americans Stand With Palestine
- MANDIRI
- Palestinian Communist Party
- Palestinian Communist Youth Union
- Palestinian Progressive Youth Union
- Progressive Student Labour Front
- QMUL Action for Palestine
- Revolutionary Communist Group
- Rock around the Blockade
- Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
- SOAS Jewish Society
- The SOAS Spirit
- South Asia Solidarity Group
- UAL Students for Justice in Palestine
- Workers World Party
- Youth Demand
- Prof Malik Abisaab, McGill University, Canada
- Fouad Baker, Palestinian Jurist
- Ramzy Baroud, Editor of Palestine Chronicle
- Lubia Begum-Rob, Director of Prisoners’ Advice Service
- Dr Louis Brehony, author and musician
- Ríoghnach Connolly, award-winning Irish musician
- Dr Greg Davies, Lecturer in Law, Liverpool University
- Dr Alastair Fraser, Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning, SOAS Politics Dept
- Prof Tahrir Hamdi, Director of Arab Open University, Jordan
- Steve Hedley, former Senior Assistant General Secretary, RMT union
- Dr Daniel Jewesbury, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- Franck Magennis, barrister, Garden Court Chambers
- Mickey Moran, An Rúnaí Ginearálta – Éirígí for a New Republic
- Yonatan Mosquera, UNISON International Relations Officer
- Asa Winstanley, investigative journalist and author
