St PAlentine’s Day

It was St Valentine's Day recently, and the Great British Courts gave a smacking great kiss to Palestine Action (PA) by decreeing that their proscription as a terrorist organisation was unlawful. For every force or action there’s an equal and opposite reaction, and the inferred opposite of the mwah-mwah to PA is a poke in the eye to the law abiders and enforcers that make up the bulk of the population, especially our Jewish friends and neighbours.

PA remains banned for now, pending an appeal by the government. The three senior judges who sided with those who would compromise Britain’s defence capability and smash a policewoman’s spine with a sledgehammer said, while PA uses criminality to promote its aims, its activities had not crossed the very high bar to make it a terrorist organisation. Really? ‘Terrorism’ is defined as the use of violence in order to achieve political aims or to force a government to do something. Sounds like PA to me. 

Having said that, I do think that British Home Secretary Shabana MadMooh erred pragmatically and politically rather than legally when she outlawed PA: not so much a sledgehammer to crack a nut (or a policewoman’s spine) as a pair of boxing gloves to thread a needle. Under British law, simply supporting a terrorist organisation is a criminal offence, so the police went around arresting hundreds of PA supporters, who weren’t doing much other than succumbing to mob psychology (i.e. echo chamber on steroids) and acting like Epsilons in Brave New World. In other words, the justice system went after words, not deeds. It’s a freedom-of-expression thing, whereas damaging property and smashing a police officer’s spine with a sledgehammer – whether you’re a proscribed terrorist or not – should be punishable offences. Indeed, the PA defendants had “no defence in law”, but the jury failed to reach a decision. Sometimes doing away with juries is very tempting. But that’s another blog for another day.

During the trial, the terrorists argued that they were justified in their actions because they were trying to stop the genocide in Palestine. Reality check please: the population of Palestine before October 7th (2023) was about 5.5 million, of which 70,000 (unconfirmed) have so far been killed, many of whom are Hamas operatives, and some of those will have been killed by Hamas not Israel, and some will have been used as human shields by Hamas. Given Israel’s military capabilities, if they intended a genocide, it would have been all done by now bar the odd hundred-thousand. What I’m saying is, there is no genocide in Palestine! PA is at best mistaken, but ignorance is no defence in law.

Regardless, should we give them the benefit of the doubt because they mean well? No, because they don’t mean well consistently in equal measure, and that stinks. Do PA and its apologists have anything to say about atrocities committed by (Muslim) Hamas against (Jewish) Israelis, or against their fellow (Muslim) Palestinians? Have they voiced outrage at the slaughter of (Muslim) Iranians by their own (Muslim) Government? What about Christians brutalised by (Muslim) Boko Haram in Nigeria? Then we have the persecution of (Muslim) Uyghurs in (atheist) China and the (Muslim) Rohingya in (Buddhist) Myanmar. And did someone mention the mass rape and trafficking of white British girls by gangs of Pakistani Muslims?

I view selective outrage with suspicion. Why condemn atrocities by Jews against Muslims, but not Muslims against Jews or Muslims or Christians? Is that antisemitism? Why chew knuckles about the rich and powerful abusing Epstein’s harem but turn a blind eye to Pakistanis abusing white British girls? Is that anti wealth? or anti British?

I think PA – the violent thugs who actually damage stuff and injure people – are terrorists, but there’s no need to proscribe them as terrorists in order to arrest, prosecute and jail them (bent juries aside). As for their vocal supporters (well, vocal and waving tea-towels around) the authorities have to balance their freedom of speech with any intimidation or incitement to violence against other sections of society. However, it’s not practical to arrest everyone who brays like a donkey (with apologies to donkeys), even though this might intimidate or threaten Jews or Zionists (of which I am a proud card-carrying member). In that case, don’t arrest anyone – neither PA supporters nor Lucy Connolly nor Tommy Robison nor Hamit Coskuns (he burned a copy of the Koran). 

I mean, our Tommy might be a bad ’un, but has he ever smashed a police woman’s spine with a sledgehammer? I think that’s called putting things into perspective.