My Alleged Crime is Support for a Proscribed Organisation, Hamas But Supporters of Syria’s HTS/ISIS/Al Qaeda Regime Have not Been Prosecuted
Tony Greenstein Speech At the Birmingham Palestine Solidarity March Sunday June 1st
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The charge sheet is deceptive. I am charged with
‘Express(ing) an opinion or belief in support of (a) proscribed organisation that will encourage support of it (and that) on 7th October 2023 expressed an opinion or be1ief that was supportive of a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas, and the support is not, or is not restricted to, to the provision of money or other property.
This charge is a lie. The Crown Prosecution Service had to obtain the consent of the Attorney General to prosecute, but that wasn’t difficult.
Attorney General, Richard Hermer, although critical of Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank and its contempt for international law, is a liberal Zionist.
In a statement to the Jewish Chronicle he explained that:
As it happens, I am from a “Blue-Box” Jewish family, a former Jewish youth movement chanich/madrich (a movement that my kids are now actively involved in), a graduate of the Machon, a former active member of UJS, a former volunteer for Searchlight magazine and a current member of Alyth Gardens shul. I actively support a range of Jewish and Israeli organisations.
I have dear family members currently serving in the IDF. I also happen to believe… that the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank is unlawful, deeply damaging to the interests of Israel and wholly contrary to the values of tikkun olam that I grew up with and continue to guide me.
Hermer’s opposition to the occupation of the West Bank does not derive from the damage to the Palestinians (who he doesn’t mention) but the interest of Israel.
Hermer was also a sabbatical officer for the Israeli Embassy funded, ardently pro-Zionist Union of Jewish Students.
The Solicitor General, Sarah Sackman is also the Deputy Attorney General. She is no liberal Zionist. She was the Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Genocide aka the Jewish Labour Movement, which has mobilised support for continued arms sales to Israel. The JLM was behind the false anti-Semitism smear campaign which helped destroy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.
My lawyers have, quite ludicrously, not been allowed to give me copies of the material in which I am alleged to have offered support to Hamas, even though I wrote it.
Sarah Sackman as part of the JLM Zoom Meeting with Kid Starver
It is clear to anyone who isn’t blind that the charges against Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Medhurst, Natalie Strecker, the Filton 18 and myself have nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with attacking Palestine solidarity activists.
The One Paper You Wouldn’t Expect to Turn It Into a Free Speech Issue is the Conservative Jersey Evening Post
If the Police seriously believed that we were engaged in the commission of acts of terrorism they would charged us with commissioning acts of terrorism. They haven’t. The charges against us are about expressing opinions or beliefs that they don’t like.
Alistair Campbell & Rory Stewart Interview the Head of the Proscribed Organisation HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa
However there are some supporters of proscribed organisations who aren’t prosecuted. Step forward Alistair Campbell, who wrote the ‘dodgy dossier’ which was a crucial document in fixing the evidence for going to war in Iraq in 2003 and ex-Tory MP Rory Stewart who interviewed the Al Quaeda/ISIS President of Syria, Mohammed al-Jolani, as part of the Establishment’s quest to rehabilitate someone who is presiding over the slaughter of Druze, Alawites & Christians.
For the first and last time I agree with the former Jewish Chronicle Editor, Jake Wallis Simons when he says ‘Shame on Rory Stewart and Alistair Cambell’.
Kingston Crown Court
Whenever the word ‘terrorism’ is mentioned the Judiciary go weak at the knees. I wanted the trial to be held in Brighton or Lewes Crown Court which are near where I live, since I have a responsibility under a Court of Protection Order for an autistic son. However because this is a ‘terrorism’ trial there are only 3 courts in the South-East that can hear it – the Old Bailey, Woolwich and Kingston Crown Court.
‘Terrorism’ legislation is being used, not to combat genuine terrorism but as a blunt weapon to silence supporters of the Palestinians and opponents of genocide. It is an abuse of the law which our judges are happy to endorse.
As John Dugard, a Professor of International law and an ad-hoc judge of the International Court of Justice observed,
‘‘The label of ‘terrorist’ is ‘a bid to discredit and silence opponents”.
In the 1980s Thatcher and Reagan called the ANC a terrorist organisation and Nelson Mandela remained on the United States terrorist watch list until 2008.
Gaza is a post-apocalyptic killing zone: UNRWA chief – Philippe Lazzarini
The accusation of ‘terrorism’ is being used to close down free speech on Palestine and Hamas is the pretext. Previously it was the PLO which was demonised. If proscription had been in operation 50 or 60 years ago then support for any national liberation or anti-colonial movement, from the Vietcong to the ANC, would have been a criminal offence.
What has been done, with the willing complicity and support of Starmer, Hermer and Lammy is to criminalise political opposition to the British government’s support of genocide.
Hamas is not a terrorist but a resistance group. It hasn’t blindly killed thousands of babies and children and then tried to turn October 7 into a second holocaust by engaging in the propogation of atrocity propaganda such as the story of 40 Beheaded Babies.
You might expect the ‘free press’ to take up this abuse of the anti-terrorist laws but instead they are its main cheerleaders. As George Orwell remarked in an essay The Freedom of the Press
‘The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics.’
Except today the British press is dishonest on virtually every topic that impinges on the interests of their billionaire owners. Included in that dishonesty is the broadcast media – not merely GB News and LBC but the BBC and Sky News.
In the United States we are seeing the destruction of even the most basic forms of democratic rights as Donald Trump sets loose the Marines and National Guard at those protesting at the activities of the ICE immigration squads.
It may not be as bad here but when you have a dozen police knocking at your door at 7 a.m. in the morning over a tweet which I posted a month before, you realise that the police state is not far away. When the police officer in my case, Chris Beckford, was asked to explain why he needed to keep possession of my digital devices, he stated when there was copious amounts of evidence in the public domain already:
However, that evidence only shows what Mr Greenstein presents publically. It is important to the investigation that we fully understand Mr Greenstein’s mind set and ideology. This not only comes from public sources, ie his blog and social media, but from his internet search history and communication with others. How, and indeed if, he talks about Hamas with others away from the public domain provides highly relevant insight into Mr Greenstein.
This is the language of the thought police who want to get into your mind. PC Beckford was not an ogre, quite the contrary. A quite affable guy but his mentality was that of Orwell’s 1984. The desire to get inside your mind is the stuff of which nightmares are made.
What is the prosecution based on? Two things. Firstly a tweet on 15 November 2023 and secondly my blog of October 7 Full Support for the Gaza Ghetto Uprising.
In my blog I say virtually nothing about Hamas but I make it clear that I support the Uprising and that is the real reason for my prosecution. Support for the oppressed and colonial peoples is now a crime.
We cannot expect the British press to support free speech because it is in bed with the political class.
The reporting of my case in the Brighton Argus ‘Brighton man charged with terror offences over Hamas comments’ was par for the course in a paper which, under its present Editor Press Prostitute Aaron Hendy, has gone from bad to oblivion.
Contrast the even more abysmal Jo Wadsworth, Editor of Brighton & Hove News whose innovative headline was ‘Tony Greenstein charged with terror offences’.
Wadsworth, who is to journalism what Harold Shipman was to care for the elderly. She once threatened to report me to the Police after I accused her of wallowing in the blood of Palestinian children. These people can get very precious.
The Police in this country have prioritised the defence of War Criminal Arms Factories like Elbit even whilst ‘ordinary’ crime like rape and burglary has soared. Rape has effectively been decriminalised as conviction rates have fallen to 1%.
There are a number of reasons for this. It isn’t just the attitudes of the Police but also the fact that the Police prefer to spend their time harassing Palestine protests and activists to doing the boring work of tracking down rapists and violent criminals. Its so much more enjoyable persecuting political opponents than doing the hard work tackling rape.
Many police officers don’t even accept that there is such a crime as rape. The murderer of Sarah Everard, Wayne Couzens was known by the nickname of ‘the rapist’. Apparently this was considered to be quite a joke.
Please come and support me on June 19th because it’s not me who is on trial but the right to freedom of speech and the right to support the Palestinians. See also
How to fight illegal police raids and win, with Asa Winstanley
Illegal police raid on my home won’t stop me covering Gaza – Asa Winstanley
