After the arrest of Sarah Wilkinson on Thursday, Jonathan Cook says Keir Starmer is determined to silence critics of his — and his government’s — complicity with Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in his office in August. (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
By Jonathan Cook
Jonathan-Cook.net
The arrest on Thursday of Palestine solidarity activist Sarah Wilkinson, following the arrest of journalist Richard Medhurst last week — both based on an improbable claim they have violated Section 12 of the Terrorism Act — is definitive proof that Keir Starmer’s authoritarian purges of the Labour left are being rolled out against critics on a nationwide basis.
Now safely ensconced in No 10 [Downing Street, the official residence of the prime minister] Starmer can crush the basic rights of British citizens with as much relish as he earlier pummelled the remnants of democracy inside the Labour Party — and for much the same reason.
The British prime minister is determined to terrorise into silence critics highlighting his, and now his government’s, complicity with Israel and its genocide in Gaza.
The police came to her house just before 7.30am. 12 of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for "content that she has posted online." Her house is being raided & they have seized all her electronic devices.
— Jack Wilkinson (@JackWilkinsonAA) August 29, 2024
Starmer would rather dramatically expand the scope of already draconian “counter-terrorism” laws than act against the wishes of the United States, either by stopping arms sales to a fascist Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu or by joining South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
There, judges have already ruled that the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians over the past 11 months is a “plausible genocide.” The next step is for South Africa and the many states backing it to persuade the World Court that the genocide is proven beyond doubt.
South Africa presenting its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice at the Hague on Jan. 12. (ICJ, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The usual Israel lobby ghouls, such as David Collier, have been salivating over Wilkinson’s arrest. She faces up to 14 years in jail for supposedly “supporting” a proscribed organisation — namely, Hamas.
According to reports, she was told she was being arrested over “content that she has posted online.” Police seized all her electronic devices. According to her daughter, she has been released on bail on condition she “never” uses those devices.
Let’s be clear: the police are using the Terrorism Act in this way only because they have received political direction to do so. Wilkinson’s arrest is only possible because the police and Starmer, supposedly a human rights lawyer, are rewriting the meaning of the term “support for terrorism.”
This is political repression in its clearest form.
OVER MY DEAD BODY
British human rights activist and social media influencer @swilkinsonbc was arrested by UK police on 29 August, reportedly over “content she posted online.”
“The police came to her house just before 7.30am. [Twelve] of them in total, some of them in plain… pic.twitter.com/scm2HgZ97g
— Roger Waters ? (@rogerwaters) August 29, 2024
Traditionally, making it a crime to “support” a terror group was about giving the authorities the power to punish anyone who offered material assistance, such as sending money or weapons, hiding armed fighters, providing information useful in an attack, and so on.
Even standard criminal laws against speech usually require evidence that someone has credibly incited direct violence or put other people’s lives in danger, such as the charges against those involved in recent far-right riots that included attempted pogroms against Muslims and immigrants.
That is entirely different from criminalising as “support for terror” any positive assertion about something done by a proscribed organisation — all the more so if we remember that Hamas has not just a military wing, but also a political section and a welfare arm.
The need for careful distinctions should be obvious. Would praising Hamas leaders, even its military leaders, for agreeing to sit down in peace talks amount to “support” for a terror organisation? Should it lead to arrest and jail time?
It was never a crime to “support” Sinn Fein — the political wing of the IRA — in the sense of having complimentary things to say about its long-time leader, Gerry Adams, or backing its political positions.
Adams giving a public reading in 2001. (Miss Fitz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)
It wasn’t even illegal to “support” actual IRA “terrorists.” Back in the early 1980s, many people criticised the Ulster authorities and the British government of Margaret Thatcher for their barbaric treatment of IRA prisoners. It was not an arrestable offence, for example, to “support” the hunger strike of the IRA’s Bobby Sands that led to his death in the Maze prison.
The Jewish News sets out the apparent grounds for the raid on Wilkinson’s home by a dozen or so police officers, and the decision to arrest and investigate her on terrorism charges. Those reasons, if they are right, should send a terrifying chill down all our spines. That doubtless was Starmer’s intent.
No. 1 According to the Jewish News, Wilkinson violated Section 12 by describing Hamas’ airborne assault into Israel on Oct. 7 as an “incredible infiltration.” Which it clearly was. By any measure, it was an infiltration. And my dictionary gives as one of the main definitions of “incredible”: “difficult to believe” or “extraordinary” in the sense of “very far from ordinary.”
Seeing Hamas use hang-gliders to get past one of the most sophisticated military structures ever built to imprison millions of people is the very definition of “incredible.” It was indeed hard to believe Hamas managed technically to do what it did that day.
Even were the police to ignore this established meaning of the word and instead assume that “great” or “wonderful” was intended — as a description of Hamas breaking out from the cage in which the people of Gaza had been imprisoned for decades and deprived of the essentials of life for 17 years — that would hardly constitute a crime, let alone “support” for terrorism.
As is well-established in international law, occupied people such as the Palestinians have a right to resist an army that occupies their territory, including through the use of violence. Just ask Starmer about that right in relation to the people of Ukraine.
[Related: The Cant About Israel’s ‘Right to Self Defense’]
Further, as even the Jewish News has to quietly concede, Wilkinson wrote her tweet on Oct. 7 — that is, the very day Hamas’ attack happened. She could have had no idea at the time of writing that civilians were being killed in large numbers.
(The extent of Hamas’ atrocities against civilians on Oct. 7 is far more disputed than the Western media cares to admit. It quickly became clear Hamas did not, as claimed, kill babies, let alone behead them.
No substantive evidence has been produced so far to show there were rapes that day, let alone the use of rape as a systematic policy, as Israel and its supporters allege. Some Israeli civilians, we now know, were killed by Israel’s own security forces when the so-called Hannibal protocol was invoked.
And other Israeli civilians may have been targeted by some of the armed groups and individuals not allied to Hamas that poured out of Gaza through breaches created in the electronic fence around the enclave.)
But even if we assume both that Wilkinson knew civilians had been killed that day, and in large numbers, and that her use of “incredible” was meant to signal her approval of the killings, it should still not constitute a crime to note the extraordinary military feat of breaking out of Gaza.
No one should be locked up for being impressed by violence. If we wanted to make that some sort of principle, we would have to go around arresting large numbers of Zionist Jews and non-Jews in Britain who have been keen to voice their enthusiasm for Israel’s months of slaughter in Gaza.
No. 2 The Jewish News also cites Wilkinson’s praise for Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, shortly after he was assassinated by Israel in Tehran. She referred to him as a “hero”.
As context, let us note that, before his murder, Haniyeh was widely viewed as a moderate, even in Hamas’ political wing. Living in exile from Gaza, he appears to have had no foreknowledge of the Oct. 7 attack. He was also one of the main players in efforts to end the bloodletting in Gaza and bring about a ceasefire through negotiations with Israel.
Haniyeh, center, meeting with the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei, right, on July 31, 2024, hours before his death. (Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)
Killing Haniyeh was intended by Netanyahu to bolster the hardliners in Hamas’ military and political wings. By sabotaging hopes of a ceasefire, Israel’s government has been able to continue its genocide.
It is no more unreasonable to view Haniyeh as a “hero” for conducting a political struggle to free the people of Gaza from what the World Court has decried as an illegal occupation and a system of brutal Israeli apartheid than it was to view Sinn Fein’s Adams as a hero for his political struggle to free Northern Ireland’s Catholic community from the oppressive rule of Britain and Ulster loyalists.
You may disagree with Haniyeh or Adams’ politics. You may denounce anyone who supports their positions. But you should most certainly not be in a position to lock such supporters away — not if we want to continue believing we live in a free society.
Adams spent many years as an elected member of the British Parliament, though he refused to take up his seat in Westminster in protest. No one ever seriously suggested that those who supported him — either by calling him a hero or by voting for him in elections — should be arrested and jailed. Anyone who had done so would rightly have been called out as monstrously authoritarian and deeply anti-democratic.
No. 3 Finally, the Jewish News suggests that Wilkinson made historic online posts — some eight years ago — amounting to Holocaust denial. Wilkinson apparently disputes this and has argued that the allegations were a smear campaign.
Even if we assume the worst — that Wilkinson did actually cast doubt on the Holocaust, rather than being smeared as having done so — that should not be a matter for the “terrorism” police. Having irrational, unfounded, or immoral views are not the equivalent of “support” for terrorism. Not even close.
Let us remember too that, if Britain’s terrorism laws are going to be enforced so expansively, the first person who should be arrested for “supporting” terrorism is Starmer himself.
Months ago he insisted numerous times that Israel had a right to block food, water and power to 2.3 million people in Gaza, a policy Israel has indeed pursued and has resulted in a man-made famine that is starving Palestinians to death. The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor is seeking Netanyahu’s arrest for that starvation policy because it is a crime against humanity.
The ICC Prosecutor today submitted a 49-page brief (attached) asking the ICC to reject the objections & delaying tactics of Israel & its allies (on jurisdiction, Oslo & complementarity). He urges the ICC to urgently issue the warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant & others.…
— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) August 24, 2024
Starmer, the human rights lawyer, knew that the starvation of Gaza was terrorism — or collective punishment, as it is known in international law. And yet he gave that very act of terror his full-throated backing. And his words had much more power to influence events than Wilkinson’s could ever have.
As opposition leader, he was in a position to add tangible pressure on Israel to stop its starvation policy by pointing out it amounted to state terror. As prime minister, he is in a position to advance the arrest of Israeli leaders for their terrorist acts under the principle of universal jurisdiction. He can stop arming the genocide too.
If we had a functioning system of international law, Starmer would undoubtedly be at serious risk of ending up in the dock of The Hague, accused of complicity in war crimes.
We now face the terrifying, Orwellian reality that a genocide-complicit prime minister can repurpose Britain’s “counter-terrorism” laws to jail anyone who opposes Israel’s genocide and Starmer’s complicity in it, charging them with “support” for terror.
Starmer wants to be judge, jury and executioner. We must not let him get away with it.
Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist. He was based in Nazareth, Israel, for 20 years. He returned to the U.K. in 2021.He is the author of three books on the Israel-Palestine conflict: Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State (2006), Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (2008) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). If you appreciate his articles, please consider offering your financial support.
This article is from the author’s blog, Jonathan Cook.net.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
I am shocked, SHOCKED, that the same tactics and rhetoric being used to attack comedians for teaching their pugs how to give a Nazi salute or against right-wing Southport rioters is now being used against left-wing Palestinian protestors. Same goes for speech laws that clamp down on the press reporting on active court cases. When will people learn that giving the government power to criminalize dissent and unpopular/inconvenient speech is never EVER used just against your political adversaries. Sooner or later, it gets used on you too.
Free speech in Great Britain is gone.
This is why America’s founders made the 1st amendment, then followed it with the 2nd amendment. It’s also why they explicitly enshrined natural rights that governments can neither grant nor remove. Any government that infringes on natural rights (such as free speech) is well down the path towards tyranny, and as Thomas Jefferson said “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.
The problem our leaders have in the west which was also a problem to some of history’s real nasties like Hitler and Stalin, is that there will always be people determined to speak out or act against them, regardless of risk. They cannot frighten enough people badly enough. They may limit criticism but they will never banish it, but as it becomes limited those who will speak out find it more necessary to do so.
thats good stuff,you know Hitler just followed the UK and US playbook of settler colonial crimes,but hey,what do facts matter to a troll
Until we face the fact that the Zionist control the US and ipso facto the rest of the ‘American Empire’ including us we will continue to struggle with the fact that our governments are closing down free speech. If we have any doubts that the Zionists do actually control the US reflect on the fact that they are daily sending the shells and bombs to continue an extermination in Gaza which the UN and most of the world has described as genocide
I don’t know a single person who voted in the UK. Everyone I know have over the last few years become totally and bitterly aware the UK has been utterly compromised and that the pretense of voting is merely a way to stop people collectively rising up against the rampant corruption and flagrant abuses of power.
Incidentally, every UK PM for many decades now would have had to have signed the ‘Friends of Israel’ pact, banning them from ever being critical of Israel whilst in office, to have been able to vie for that top job to begin with. Understandably, things like that have a habit of turning people away from trusting the concept of ‘Voting For The Change You Want’.
Sarah Wilkinson and any others charged with such spurious ‘crimes’ will very likely get off the charges brought against them, but they will surely be dragged through the british courts for many years regardless because this is purely an excercise in frightening critics of Zionism into silence so much money can be made by the select few through the suffering of many.
As things have always been since we started recording history. No charters of rights or constitutions will ever change that, sadly.
Narcissists always fail to see their own downfalls which is why they apparently haven’t noticed that Israel, at least as most of the world knew it, whilst flailing around in its fit of wanton rage metaphorically slit it’s own throat in the process and as such has died, never to return.
I don’t know anyone who will ever, ever, ever do business with them again and are, if nothing else, now committed to boycotting everything Israel for the rest of their lives. Because no sane or moral person supports such eager barbarism.
Currently, the genocide hook hasn’t quite set deep enough due to fear of retaliation from the ‘MasterBlaster’ entity and the fact that the ICC and the rest are not helping make the ground firmer by their pussyfooting around and apparently two-tiered system…but should the unthinkable happen and these oppressors succeed in ethnically cleansing Palestine as the world watches, more countries will certainly join the slowly increasing number already refusing to have anything more to do with them.
By their own actions have they doomed themselves.
Zionism trumps, indeed squashes the Magna Carta as Starmer seeks to emulate Netenyahu.
Let’s face it the ICC is a joke. Well and truly in the pocket of the West, like most of the UN.
these actions by these governments will not stop people speaking out nor will it remove the simple fact that countries like britian and america have funded the ethnic cleansing of the palestinian people.
Free Palestine!
Its interesting that the demise of the western society, of democracy, of humans rights and the comfort that has been achieved for many will come to an end by the hand of those who considered Nazi Germany to be a blight upon the world, the second world war. Nothing has been learnt. I find it horrific that the countries who lost so many souls in the name of freedom and the right to food on the table, a roof over their heads and the right to free speech are now guilty of genocide through their complicity in funding and arming of israel to commit the ethnic cleaning of the Palestinian people.
Where will this end, who will be the next Palestine. What will happen as more and more countries step away from the US dollar? Maybe it is time to rethink who is going to think of themselves less and work towards de-esculating tension around the world as opposed to the war mongers who are dragging us deeper into conflict.
Free Palestine and Peace to mankind.
Isn’t it absolutely grand to live in the free West and enjoy the liberty bequeathed to us?
They are taking away literally every single claim to specialness and value that the Anglo American civilization had: limited govt, free speech, fair trials, etc.
Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.
What if I’d rather not?
Anyone who supports US policy as well as Britain’s and the rest of the Western colonialist structure are guilty of supporting terrorism. The tables may turn before the current crop of Israel’s enablers are out of office. Unless we are wise enough to elect a president outside the duopoly, either of the two vacuous candidates to wind up leading this declining empire could be charged with supporting terrorism. These smug neoliberalcons as Pepe Escobar has dubbed them believe they are untouchable. We shall see. What goes around, comes around.
“Starmer wants to be judge, jury and executioner.”
Isn’t that one definition of a dictator?
Starmer certainly was not knighted for being a human rights lawyer – the opposite would be closer to the truth.
In my opinion, there has not been a decent PM since Harold Wilson. And their love of wealth and privilege, together with their own personal monies (especially labour PMs) does not represent the majority of the citizens they are supposedly governing:
Xxxx://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/31/keir-starmer-perks-disconcerting-cash-strapped-britain
See the difference:
Xxxx://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/27/sad-last-days-of-harold-wilson-revealed-by-cabinet-office-archives