Attack on Freedom of Speech
GABRIEL CARLYLE
Why did I risk arrest and a possible jail sentence by joining the demonstration in Parliament square earlier this month? Instead of fulfilling its legal obligations under the Genocide Convention and ending all UK arms sales to Israel, the UK government has instead chosen to allow the ongoing sale of British arms to Israel – most importantly, the supply of vital spare parts for the F35 planes used to bomb Gaza’s population – and to misuse anti-terror powers to repress nonviolent protest and freedom of speech about these sales.
Gabriel Carlyle Arrested
On 3 July, Amnesty International condemned Israel’s ‘continued use of starvation to inflict genocide against Palestinians’. This followed: Amnesty’s earlier (Dec ‘24) finding that Israel is ‘committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza’; Human Rights Watch’s finding (also in Dec ‘24) that Israel had ‘intentionally deprived Palestinian civilians in Gaza of adequate access to water since October 2023, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths and thus committing the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide’; the issuing of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (in Nov ‘24) for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ‘the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts’; and the Jan ‘24 ruling by the International Court of Justice that there was plausible evidence that Israel was carrying out genocide in Gaza.
Today, though, it is apparently perfectly legal to endorse Israel’s ‘right’ to deprive Gaza’s population of power and water–as Keir Starmer himself did in Oct ‘23–or support its bombing of Gaza into oblivion. There is only one legally-permitted answer to the question: ‘Do you support Palestine Action–yes or no?’
Surely this is one of the worst attacks on free speech and the right to protest in the UK in the last thirty years.
Meanwhile, though our local Hastings’ MP, Helena Dollimore, is prepared to cry crocodile tears about the Israeli government’s ‘appalling’ actions and the ‘intolerable’ human suffering in Gaza, she has never once acknowledged that these crimes have been taking place – and continue to take place – with the active support of her government through continued UK arms sales and RAF overflights of Gaza.
I call on her to disavow her recent vote to ban Palestine Action, to acknowledge that Israel’s actions clearly fit the legal definition of genocide and to join other Labour MPs in signing Early Day Motion 1310, calling for the immediate suspension of UK arms sales to Israel.
Read how a Hastings 12 year old raised nearly £2,000 for Gaza families. Letters 4
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
Leave a Reply