The British state is planning to step up its repression of protests against Israelâs war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. As the popular movement in solidarity with the Palestinians growsâhalf a million attended a national demonstration in London on Saturdayâthe government and police are seeking new tools to intimidate and arrest protestors.
In the lead-up to Saturdayâs demonstration, the media whipped up a torrent of slander denouncing those participating. There have been countless references to a fascistic article by the UKâs Commissioner for Countering Extremism Robin Simcox, published in The Times, âHate marches in Britain are a wake-up call to all decent people.â
The hundreds of thousands who have protested Israelâs war on Gaza with chants of âFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,â declares Simcox, are guilty of chanting âdeath to Jewsâ. They have âbeen careful to construe their public displays of support just below the legal threshold for hate crime, glorification of terror, or public order offences⊠exploiting one of our proudest British values, freedom of expression, to pursue a shameful extremist agenda, the normalisation and promotion of antisemitism.â
His screed continues that this is also âthe price that Britain and other Western European countries are paying for a three decade-long failed policy mix of mass migration and multiculturalism.â
On Friday, The Times added to this barrage the totally baseless allegations, supposedly citing private conversations with counterterrorism officers, that the Iranian government âis trying to heighten tensions at rallies over Israelâs bombing of Gaza. They have warned of increased hostile-state activity in Britain. It is directly linked to the Iranian regime and includes a campaign of online disinformation and Iranian operatives being physically present at protests.â
On Sunday, head of Londonâs Metropolitan Police Mark Rowley used these lies as a platform to call for a review of the legal definition of âextremismâ, giving his officers a free hand to round up as many protestors as they can get their hands on.
Roughly 100 people have been arrested in connection with the protests since Israelâs war began, but Rowley threatened there would be âmany moreâ in the future: âweâre going to be absolutely ruthlessâ. Crown Prosecution Service lawyers are now stationed in police operations rooms monitoring the protests to âidentifyâ as many alleged offences as possible.
The London police chief, previously the UKâs lead counter terror officer, did his bit to smear the hundreds of thousands who have taken a stand against Israelâs genocide as Iranian stooges, terrorist accomplices and antisemites: âYouâve got state threats from Iran, youâve got terrorism being accelerated by the events and hate crime in communities⊠In the middle of it, weâve got these big protests.â
He lamented that police could only âenforce up to the line of the law,â since âthereâs no point arresting hundreds of people if itâs not prosecutable.â
He added, âThere is scope to be much sharper in how we deal with extremism within this country. The law was never designed to deal with extremism, there’s a lot to do with terrorism and hate crime but we donât have a body of law that deals with extremism, and that is creating a gap.â
The next step in this state orchestrated witch-hunt was for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to order a Home Office review of terrorism and extremism laws to consider âtweaks to the wording of existing laws to strengthen policing of the language and slogans at pro-Palestinian demos,â according to Politico.
Given the timescale of a review and new legislation, Communities Secretary Michael Gove has meanwhile been tasked with implementing a new non-statutory definition of extremism by the end of the year. The Times reports that the new wording âwill make it easier to crack down on charities, places of worship, universities and other organisations that spread radical ideology or host hate preachers.â
The current definition is already as broad as âvocal or active opposition to fundamental British valuesâ.
On Monday, Braverman, other senior ministers, national security officials and police took part in a COBRA meeting (which deal with national crises) âto look at domestic security arrangements in the wake of three weekends of protests and rising incidents of anti-Semitism,â in the Timesâ words.
Speaking to broadcasters after the meeting, Braverman let rip a barrage of lies and threats, âLet me explain what we have seen over the last few weekends. We have seen now tens of thousands of people take to the streets following the massacre of Jewish people, the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, chanting for the erasure of Israel from the map.
âTo my mind there is only one way to describe those marches. They are hate marches.â
Braverman, who is the most notorious hate monger in Britain today, continued, âWhat the police have made clear is that they are concerned that there is a large number of bad actors who are deliberately operating beneath the criminal threshold in a way which you or I or the vast majority of British people would consider to be utterly odious.â She added that she âwould not hesitateâ to change the law to facilitate a crackdown.
The ruling class is intent on the brutal repression of a mass movement they have long feared, amid a resurgence of the class struggle now exacerbated by the impacts of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the outbreak of war–first in Ukraine and now in the Middle East. It is using the McCarthyite atmosphere whipped up by the media and the government over any opposition to Israelâs genocidal assault on the Palestinians to roll out well-prepared plans for a police state.
Rowley was appointed to head the Metropolitan Police for precisely this purpose, having spent the previous few years advising the UK governmentâs Commission on Countering Extremism. In 2019, the World Socialist Web Site reported how a report on âleft-wing extremismâ submitted to the Commission, âset out to brand as suspect views held by millions of peopleâ as extremist, among them that âThe greatest threat to democracy has always come from the far rightâ and that âZionism is a form of racismâ.
The eruption of a mass, global movement against the imperialist powers and their Israeli client state is exposing the real state of political relations the world over: deeply isolated and despised governments stand opposed to the vast bulk of the working class and youth.
As their last shreds of legitimacy fall away, the governing parties and their nominal parliamentary opponents are turning to dictatorship to preserve their rule. Workers and young people taking a stand in defence of the Palestinians against Israelâs crimes are compelled to wage a political fight against their own complicit and authoritarian states.
Source: Wsws.org
UK government demands intensified clampdown on protests in defence of Palestinians
Ontario Government: Hospital Workers Should Work Harder
Mass protests erupt internationally against Israeli war on Gaza
Harvard University student organizations targeted for opposition to Israeli war crimes in Gaza
How Big Media Facilitate Israeli War Crimes in Gaza
Australian Labor government, opposition join hands in support of Israeli war crimes
WSJ Celebrates Making It Harder For Poor People To Access Food
Finding a job is even harder for former prisoners
Millions march in global protests against Israeli genocide in Gaza
Huge protests in Britain against Israeli stateâs attack on Gaza
Actors, filmmakers, musicians, writers speak out against Israeli war crimes
Members of UK Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee condemn Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians
