Anti-Israel Activist Wins Appeal’

Imagine my surprise when I read in the Jewish Chronicle that ‘Anti-Israel Activist Wins Appeal’.
According to Marcus Dysch (6.12.12.)

Harvey Garfield Fails to Frame Palestinian Activist

Garfield on the left, hand on hip, looking satisfied as the EDL are all around

‘A veteran anti-Israel campaigner has been cleared of hitting a Jewish man during a boycott protest.
Carole Swords, former chair of Tower Hamlets Respect Party, successfully appealed against a public order offence conviction which followed the pair clashing in a Tesco Metro store.
Harvey Garfield told Southwark Crown Court he had been struck in the face by Ms Swords in London’s Covent Garden in August 2011.
Mr Garfield said he had been volunteering at the store to assist staff and security guards and had worked to “protect” Israeli products from potentially being vandalised by boycott protesters who had earlier demonstrated outside the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava.
The court viewed CCTV footage which showed Ms Swords, of Bow, east London, entering the Tesco store and speaking to Mr Garfield and a security guard.
She walked down an aisle and Mr Garfield walked behind her. He told the court that Ms Swords had turned to shout: “Don’t you f***ing follow me.”
“It happened very quickly,” he said. “I turned, but before I said anything she had struck me. My glasses came off at an angle and fell to the floor.”
Ms Swords’ defence team argued that Mr Garfield had harassed and intimidated her inside Tesco, alleging that he had called her a “Nazi”, a” fishwife” and a “terrorist”. Mr Garfield repeatedly denied the accusation.
Chairing the hearing last Friday, Recorder Mukul Chawla QC said the CCTV footage showed Mr Garfield following Ms Swords in such a way that he was “virtually glued to her”.
“We are of the clear view that the appellant was entitled to demand in emphatic terms that he not follow her,” he said. “It’s clear Ms Swords raised her arm with her hand carrying a number of leaflets. What’s not clear is whether the hand or arm ever came into contact with Mr Garfield’s face. How his glasses came off we cannot say. ” The evidence meant the court “could not reasonably convict” and he allowed the appeal.(hat tip – Michael Shanahan)

Now I have a slight knowledge of Harvey Garvey myself.  Not only was he pictured dancing down Monmouth Street with his twin image Jonathan Hoffman and the EDL’s Roberta Moore, but he is even more objectionable than his twin.  This particular specimen of Zionist low-life, having no arguments of his own to make, has even tried to criticise my own views on Israel, not by reference to their own merits, but because my dead father would not have agreed with me!  Only a thorough racist, Zionist or otherwise, would buy into this old ‘kith and kin’ argument that ‘blood is thicker than water’ therefore you should turn a blind eye to injustice carried out in your name by those whose religion/race you share.

I even have knowledge of the violence of what Michael Shanahan describes as a ‘rick-shaw puller’ who masquerades as a London cabby.  At the anti-Habimah protests last year, I was taking a quiet stroll in the theatre, having appreciated how a Zionist troupe probably brought a whole new understanding to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (in fact their’s was probably one of the worst interpretations imaginable – hackneyed and timeless) when I was set upon by a group of Zionist hoodlums, including the said Harvey.  As Garfield climbed onto my back, I heard a sudden thump on the floor where the schmuck landed.  Immediately he started squealing and the Police detained me.  However I then informed London’s finest that in that case  I wanted to press charges of assault against Harvey, and hey presto, I was released inside of 5 minutes as it dawned on even the most thick Met Inspector that little ol’ me was hardly likely to want to take on 3 Zionist thugs at the same time!

Tony Greenstein