Authoritarian bid to shut down Palestinian journalism

The British government is using suppression tactics familiar from the north of Ireland against English journalists critical of its role in the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East.

Over 40,000 innocent Palestinian civilians have now been killed in Israel’s genocide, including 16,500 children. With the support of Britain, the EU and the USA, the annihilation of the native population has now been extended from Gaza into the West Bank.

The British war cabinet contains several Ministers who publicly identify as “Friends of Israel” – including the British Direct Ruler in the north of Ireland, Hilary Benn. They are believed to have directly ordered the detentions of Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst and the seizure of their electronic devices.

An independent journalist and political commentator, Medhurst was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport on August 15, also under Section 12 of Britain’s ‘Terrorism Act’.

He was held at a police station for over 24 hours, where he said police accused him of “expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed (illegal) organisation”, without giving any details.

He foretold that his arrest would set a dangerous precedent that could be used to target others – as happened last week.

Sarah Wilkinson, a 69-year-old pro-Palestinian journalist, was arrested on August 29, under the same legislation, when a paramilitary-style police unit in balaclavas ransacked her house and even desecrated her mother’s ashes. She was refused medication and not given food while interrogated for hours at a police station near her home in the west English town of Shrewsbury.

The Council Estate Media website, reporting on an interview she gave to Crispin Flintoff, described her ordeal.

“Sarah says she was woken up at 7.10am and her street was filled with 16 or 17 police vehicles, all to arrest one woman. Officers in plain clothes barged into her house when she answered the door, and they refused to present a warrant, saying they had one, but didn’t need to show it.

“Balaclava-clad men shoved Sarah’s son against a wall and led Sarah to a police van as they ransacked her house. Sarah says the handcuffs were painful and when she was taken to the police station, she was taken on a long route. It’s supposed to be a 45-minute drive, but the route took two hours and involved going in the wrong direction and U-turning. Sarah had no seatbelt in the police van and was repeatedly flung off her seat. The police officers were not wearing uniforms and she was concerned they might not have been police at all and she might have been abducted.

“As Sarah points out, she is a 69-year-old woman who suffers from Crohn’s disease, and she cannot eat without medication.”

Police discussed Sarah’s work with a Palestinian charity and demanded the location of her contacts in Gaza. That has raise fears that those locations could be passed to Israeli intelligence and those people targeted in Israel’s ongoing bombings.

The most disturbing aspect of the story was the urn containing Sarah’s mother’s ashes, which was cracked and the ashes were scattered around her loft.

“Sarah was given bail, but the conditions mean she is not allowed to use any electronic devices, not even a phone. She is allowed to conduct interviews, but only if she never touches any electronic equipment. All of the electronic equipment in Sarah’s house was confiscated, even innocuous things like cables.”

“There is so much more that Sarah mentioned, so it really is worth watching the interview in full. Many of us are aware of the authoritarian direction the UK has been taking, but to hear it spelled out in this way really brings it home.

“I had been under the assumption police needed some sort of excuse, no matter how tenuous, to raid your home, but it seems in Sarah’s case, the only excuse was the sheer volume of her tweets.

“Police have placed Sarah on bail while they trawl through thousands of posts and articles, and they will presumably keep extending the bail while they do this. If so, it means Sarah has been silenced until the genocide is over.”

Urgent Appeal