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
- 1/200 Media
- Al Fidai Media Network
- Alkarama, Palestinian Women’s Movement
- Bartolina Sisa Resistance
- Birmingham Liberated Zone
- Birmingham Queers for Palestine
- Built on Blood
- Camden Friends of Palestine
- Communist Party (Germany)
- Communist Refoundation Aotearoa
- Connolly Youth Movement
- Consistent Democrats
- Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
- Focus E15 Campaign
- Govanhill Apartheid Free Zone
- India Labour Solidarity (UK)
- International Bolshevik Tendency
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK
- Keele Leftist Society
- Latin Americans Stand With Palestine
- MANDIRI
- Movement For Justice
- Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol)
- Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
- Palestinian Communist Party
- Palestinian Communist Youth Union
- Palestinian Progressive Youth Union
- People’s Bridge
- Progressive Student Labour Front
- QMUL Action for Palestine
- Red Spark, Australia
- Revolutionary Communist Group
- Revolutionary Communist Party Newcastle District
- Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21)
- Rock around the Blockade
- Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
- Secours Rouge Toulouse
- Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card
- SOAS Jewish Society
- SOAS Justice for Workers
- The SOAS Spirit
- Socialist Equality Party (UK)
- South Asia Solidarity Group
- UAL Students for Justice in Palestine
- Workers World Party
- Youth Demand
- Zionism Free Leith
- Prof Malik Abisaab, McGill University, Canada
- Hamja Ahsan, artist and author
- Fouad Baker, Palestinian Jurist
- Ramzy Baroud, Editor of Palestine Chronicle
- Brian Becker, National Director, ANSWER Coalition
- Lubia Begum-Rob, Director of Prisoners’ Advice Service
- Taylor Borowetz, Graduate Teaching Assistant at Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
- 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 at Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
- Tony Greenstein, author, Zionism during the Holocaust, Secretary of Unite SE 6246 branch
- Prof Tahrir Hamdi, Director of Arab Open University, Jordan
- Dr Sian Hawthorne, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Religion and Politics, SOAS
- Steve Hedley, former Senior Assistant General Secretary, RMT union
- Dr Daniel Jewesbury, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- Mickey Moran, An Rúnaí Ginearálta – Éirígí for a New Republic
- Yonatan Mosquera, UNISON International Relations Officer
- Prof Ilan Pappé, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter
- Dr Asim Qureshi, Research Director at CAGE International
- Dr Manjeet Ramgotra, SOAS
- Tanroop Sandhu, Teaching Fellow at Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS
- Dr Sara Stevano, Senior Lecturer in Economics at SOAS University
- Cllr Hau-Yu Tam 譚巧瑜, Green Party Councillor, Evelyn, Lewisham
- Derek Wall, former Green Party of England and Wales International Coordinator
- Asa Winstanley, investigative journalist and author
