05.12.24
Editorial Note
In early November, Prof. Haim Bresheeth who teaches Film Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), was detained by the police in the UK for delivering a hate speech. He was held overnight by the police and then released. Bresheeth, wearing a keffiyeh, spoke in a pro-Palestinian rally on behalf of the group Jewish Network for Palestine, which he co-founded.
In his speech, Bresheeth said that Israel “has not achieved any of its declared aims either in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, or anywhere else. What has it achieved? Murder, mayhem, genocide, racism, destruction. This is what they’re good at. They’re really good at killing babies. They are really good at killing women and old men.”
He further stated, “We will continue to come here. We will continue to be arrested when the people who are actually doing the genocide are protected by all the police and armies and the governments of the West everywhere. This is no longer about Gaza. This has turned into the West against the rest. And the rest—the whole of the world—knows exactly, for the first time, what Israel is, what it is about, what it is going to do, and we are going to stop it! Now, to know how to stop your enemy you have to understand how it works. Israel is not just colonizing Palestine. If it was just colonizing Palestine it would be much easier to stop them. They have colonized every government in the West. They have colonized the minds of Western governments, politicians, governments everywhere who support them. Without that support, without the US arming and paying for this genocide, it would stop overnight. And instead of stopping it, those governments—which I hope will be represented soon in the ICC and ICJ—are continuing, including our government, and including Sir Keir who is a Zionist through-and-through, and is supporting genocide now, as he supported it before. So, we have to fight colonialism everywhere because Israel has colonized the American mind, the British mind, the European mind. More importantly, they’ve colonized the Jewish people everywhere. They have colonized Judaism—the tradition, the beliefs, the religion, the experience of Jews for 2,000 years—was colonized by Zionism. And these Jews are supporting, in great numbers, not just here, but everywhere in the West, they are supporting the genocide. Shame on them!”
Interestingly, he ended by stating, “The other area that I’m very worried about—because I’m an academic—is that they have colonized all the universities in the West. And we are not able to speak there. Even academics are not allowed to speak in universities if they are speaking against Zionism. We must decolonize the higher education system and the whole education system. And last but not least, I think we must decolonize the whole system of the media which is supporting, which is aiding and abetting Israel and its genocide everywhere.”
Since the incident, Bresheeth, who is under investigation, was interviewed by anti-Israel Iranian and Qatari owned media outlets, where he insisted that his speech was not a hate speech and was crafted to state that “Israel has not achieved any of its declared aims, either in Gaza in Lebanon in, in Iran or anywhere else… they cannot fight the resistance, they have lost every single time.”
In another recent interview, the high-profile pro-Palestinian activist said: “The main and sometimes only machinery of repressing, killing, genociding and ethnically cleansing Palestinians is the IDF… This is an illegal, immoral army… It’s the organization that dictates identity in Israel.” Bresheeth laments how Zionism — which he calls “a replacement of Judaism” and “basically a non-religious religion” — has become the dominant force shaping Jewish identity, replacing previous values of cosmopolitanism, progressivism and “even socialism.” He says the “main tenet” of American Jewish support for Israel pivots around the military. “They are supporting the instrument of suppression, of murder, of destruction, of genocide.”
In an interview with the Iranian PressTV titled “Is the West selling its future for Israel?” Bresheeth talked about his arrest, which he considers illegal. He said, “think about it as a method of breaking the law by using legal means. What Britain is doing is not that different from what the Nazis invented in order to apprehend, arrest, and later even destroy the lives of millions, they passed laws that were illegal basically because they took the rights away from a whole group of people. Britain doesn’t do it to Millions, it does it to people who are actually upholding the law, the international law, which is the law in Britain, the law everywhere, which says that we should do everything we can to stop genocide where it happens, we should do all we can to prevent it happening and we should actually bring the people who are committing genocide which is the crime of crimes, to Justice. Britain is actually supporting genocide, financing genocide, arming the Israeli genocide in Gaza… the government is breaking international law by committing genocide, so instead of the news media doing this work when we are doing that for them, instead of them, we are arrested. This is a system which is against, not just us and the people of Gaza and the people of Lebanon etc., this is the West against the rest. The West is using illegal methods to break its own law because what we are saying is not acceptable to them, it exposes their methods, it exposes their illegality and they don’t want that to happen.”
Bresheeth and his colleagues accused the British police of antisemitism for arresting a Jewish man and a son of Holocaust survivors who participated in a demonstration. This declaration is shameful because Bresheeth uses his ethnicity and background to cast aspiration on the policy.
As IAM has repeatedly pointed out, the widely-used International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism states that it is the content of a given speech or text – rather than the ethnicity of the speaker or author – that determines antisemitic intent. Hiding behind his Jewish identity and the family’s Holocaust background demonstrates Bresheeth’s moral and intellectual cowardice.
His other accusation that the Zionists colonized the universities, is equally specious. Indeed, this is an inversion of reality. As is well known, for decades now, Muslim countries poured millions of dollars into Western universities, especially in liberal arts and Middle East studies, creating a narrative deeply hostile to Zionism and the Jews. IAM has discussed numerous cases where Western universities hired former Israeli scholars who had a proven record of Israel bashing. Bresheeth himself is an example of this trend.
The October 7 attack revealed how this decades-long indoctrination morphed into the widespread support for Hamas and a wholesale condemnation of Israel as a genocidal state intent to wipe out the Palestinians. All this despite the fact that Hamas launched an unprovoked and extremely brutal attack replete with wanton murder of men, women, and children, rape, torture, and kidnappings. More to the point, the Gaza War demonstrated that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields by embedding them in public places like hospitals, mosques, and UNRWA schools, a practice that violates humanitarian conventions.
The widespread support of Hamas on Western campuses demonstrates the blindness of Bresheeth and his fellow pro-Palestinian advocates.
REFERENCES:
“Thank you for inviting me to speak on behalf of Jewish Network for Palestine and for all of you coming here for 13 months. And please don’t lose heart because it is going to be a while before we can celebrate, unfortunately. But Israel cannot celebrate either. It has not achieved any of its declared aims either in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran, or anywhere else. What has it achieved? Murder, mayhem, genocide, racism, destruction. This is what they’re good at. They’re really good at killing babies. They are really good at killing women and old men. But they cannot fight the resistance. They have lost every single time. Now, Israel has won a number of wars against very big and successful armies. You remember that? They cannot win against Hamas. They cannot win against Hezbollah. They cannot win against the Houthis. They cannot win against the united resistance to the genocide that they have started. So, we will continue to come here. We will continue to be arrested when the people who are actually doing the genocide are protected by all the police and armies and the governments of the West everywhere. This is no longer about Gaza. This has turned into the West against the rest. And the rest—the whole of the world—knows exactly, for the first time, what Israel is, what it is about, what it is going to do, and we are going to stop it! Now, to know how to stop your enemy you have to understand how it works. Israel is not just colonizing Palestine. If it was just colonizing Palestine it would be much easier to stop them. They have colonized every government in the West. They have colonized the minds of Western governments, politicians, governments everywhere who support them. Without that support, without the US arming and paying for this genocide, it would stop overnight. And instead of stopping it, those governments—which I hope will be represented soon in the ICC and ICJ—are continuing, including our government, and including Sir Keir who is a Zionist through-and-through, and is supporting genocide now, as he supported it before. So, we have to fight colonialism everywhere because Israel has colonized the American mind, the British mind, the European mind. More importantly, they’ve colonized the Jewish people everywhere. They have colonized Judaism—the tradition, the beliefs, the religion, the experience of Jews for 2,000 years—was colonized by Zionism. And these Jews are supporting, in great numbers, not just here, but everywhere in the West, they are supporting the genocide. Shame on them! They are not real Jews. We are here because we know the history of Judaism. And they are actually making sure that Jewish people will suffer from anti-Semitism everywhere. They are helping anti-Semitism every day with their genocide and with their ‘Hasbara’ and with their crimes. So, I want to say, to end, there are three other types of colonialism that we have to fight. They have colonized the Western governments and we need to bring an end to that. We—the people in the West—must stand up against our own governments. No one, who supported genocide, should sit in government anywhere. They should sit in jail! Now, the other area that I’m very worried about—because I’m an academic—is that they have colonized all the universities in the West. And we are not able to speak there. Even academics are not allowed to speak in universities if they are speaking against Zionism. We must decolonize the higher education system and the whole education system. And last but not least, I think we must decolonize the whole system of the media which is supporting, which is aiding and abetting Israel and its genocide everywhere. Thank you very much.” — Haim Bresheeth, son of Holocaust survivors and founder of Jewish Network for Palestine
6:16
7:18 AM · Nov 9, 2024·
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‘Our right to reject Zionism’ – important IJAN even takes place Wednesday in London
An array of speakers will participate in International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network panel
A group of prominent speakers will sit as panellists for a landmark event by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) on Wednesday in London’s Bethnal Green including Prof Haim Bresheeth, who was wrongfully arrested earlier this month at an anti-genocide protest outside the Swiss Cottage residence of Israel’s far-right ambassador, Tzipi Hotovely.
The event will take place from 7-9pm at Pelican House, Bethnal Green. Speakers are shown below and the event will also include an opening performance by rapper and poet Usaama:
Admission is free, but a collection will no doubt be taken for the cause of Palestinian freedom and the fight against genocide and racist Zionism.
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Is the West selling its future for Israel?
Tuesday, 19 November 2024 6:59 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday]
In this episode of Have It Out with Galloway, George Galloway explores the political and strategic consequences of the West’s relationship with Israel.
George is joined by Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, founder of Jewish Network for Palestine, and a live audience. To become a part of the live audience in the next episode, apply on our website at haveitoutwithgalloway.com.
George welcomes any views and questions, so come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:
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Jewish Anti-Zionist Activist Describes His Arrest Under UK’s Anti-Terror Law
Activist Haim Bresheeth, the son of Holocaust survivors and founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine, speaks out.By Derek Seidman , TruthoutPublishedNovember 23, 2024
Haim Bresheeth, center, at a national demonstration in London, U.K., in March 2024, with a group of Holocaust survivors and survivor descendants against the Gaza genocide.Sarah Sheriff
On November 1, author and activist Haim Bresheeth was arrested in London after giving a speech at a pro-Palestine rally outside the home of Tzipi Hotovely, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom. The 79-year-old Bresheeth, a Jewish Israeli who has lived mostly in London since the 1970s, is an outspoken critic of Zionism and Israel and a supporter of Palestinian rights. He is the son of Holocaust survivors and a founder of the Jewish Network for Palestine.
In his speech, Bresheeth said Israel is unable to win against Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. According to Bresheeth, the police told him he was being arrested under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which forbids expressing support for proscribed organizations stated in the law. Bresheeth denies breaking any law, and, he says, was released the morning after his arrest and subsequently had his case closed without charge.
Bresheeth’s arrest joins a rising wave of persecution against pro-Palestinian protesters and journalists in the U.K. Since October 7, British authorities have used the Terrorism Act 2000 invoked during Bresheeth’s arrest to crack down on critics of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The law is the cornerstone of British counterterrorism legislation, and has been criticized by Amnesty International as contributing to an “ever-expanding security state in the UK” that “appears to single out Muslims,” with vague and expanding definitions of what constitutes “terrorist activity.”
Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer, historian and retired professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His books include An Army Like No Other: How the Israel Defense Forces Made a Nation and The Holocaust for Beginners. Truthout spoke to Bresheeth to get his account of his arrest, the growing repression of critics of Israel in the U.K., and why, as an Israeli Jewish son of Holocaust survivors, he feels compelled to speak out against Zionism and in support of Palestine.
Derek Seidman: What’s the background behind the protest you were arrested at?
Haim Bresheeth: In an interview after October 7, the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, said Israel might have to kill 600,000 civilians in Gaza, like the United States and the U.K. did in Germany at the end of the Second World War.
I am one of the founders of Jewish Network for Palestine, an anti-Zionist organization arguing for one state in Palestine with equal rights for all, and an end of apartheid and Zionism. Together with the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, we have called for the expulsion of Hotovely from the U.K., which is not a big punishment for what she said. She should actually be in the International Criminal Court for advocating genocide.
After her comments, we started weekly protests on the other side of the road outside her residence. We protested every Friday evening for the Shabbat, and the protests gradually grew. The police then moved us to a main road that actually made the protest more visible. This has been going on for just over a year.
I’m an Israeli Jew. It’s well known that both my parents survived Auschwitz. Like Tony Greenstein, I’m a “problem.” We’re both anti-Zionist Jews who are active for Palestinians’ rights.
There are very large national demonstrations for Palestine happening every week. Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman called them “hate marches” and asked the police to not allow them. But they were never stopped.
I’ve spoken at these demonstrations a number of times. There was no problem until about seven weeks ago, when a dear friend and a colleague from Jewish Network for Palestine, Tony Greenstein, a well-known activist in Britain, was arrested for saying something that the police called hate speech. [Note: Greenstein’s speech compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Nazis.]
Tony was released the next day. He is not allowed to come to the demonstration now because the bail conditions specified that. So we knew that they were on to us and that they are going to limit what we can say.
Can you discuss your arrest?
I was arrested on Friday evening, November 1, because I said that it’s clear that, despite the fact that Israel has won wars against large and strong state armies, it seems unable to win against Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. That is the sum total of what I said.
I was stopped by the police at the end of the demonstration and they told me that I was being arrested for hate speech. I told them I didn’t utter hate speech, nor did anyone else at the demonstration.
There were a lot of phone calls and arguments. After about 45 minutes, their story changed from hate speech to that they were moving to charge me under the Terrorism Act 2000, Section 12, which forbids expressing support for proscribed organizations. The policeman that arrested me told me that it all came from on high.
They kept me waiting under duress in a car park for a few hours. In the end, they brought me to the station.
What happened after they took you to the station?
They took my telephone and they put me into a filthy cell. There was a plastic sheet on the floor where you’re supposed to sit or lie down. I’m 79 and I suffer from heart disease and cancer and can’t easily get up from the floor.
I asked for my medications. Somebody went to my home and collected the medications from my wife, but they didn’t give them to me when I needed to take them at 8:00 in the evening. At 1:00 am, I insisted that I needed to get my medication, and after an hour, they allowed me to take them.
Haim Bresheeth, right, at a national demonstration in London, U.K., in October 2024.Yosefa Loshitky
So it wasn’t fun. In the end, two people from the Terror Squad interviewed me for about an hour and a half. I gave my statement that said, in very great detail, why what I’ve done is totally normal, because I’m reporting facts. You can read it in the New York Times or Haaretz. I said that I have been a peace activist all my life, and claimed that they don’t have a case.
It was clear they had nothing to charge me on. After almost two hours of questioning, I told them I’m not going to say anything anymore.
After all this, they said they were not charging me today, and that they were passing my case to the Crown Prosecution Service. They tried to keep my phone, but I told them they couldn’t. I have daily cancer treatments and the only way I am told when to come is by this telephone. If you take my telephone, I said, you might as well leave me here to die. They gave me the telephone.
At first light, I arrived home. A few days later, my solicitor contacted me and said they got a “No Further Action” decision. In other words, they closed the case without any charge. So they admitted that they didn’t have anything.
Why do you think they targeted you?
Ever since October 7, I have published articles and done dozens of interviews on what’s happening. I have spoken at numerous locations, both in Europe and in Britain.
I’m an Israeli Jew. It’s well known that both my parents survived Auschwitz. Like Tony Greenstein, I’m a “problem.” We’re both anti-Zionist Jews who are active for Palestinians’ rights and against Zionism’s crimes. It’s difficult to criticize us as antisemites, because we’ve written books on antisemitism and written about the Holocaust profusely.
I used to know all the other anti-Zionists Jews in Britain. Now there are tens of thousands, if not more.
This is just a way of frightening, intimidating, silencing and criminalizing us in the pro-Palestine camp. This is happening everywhere in the EU and it’s happening in Britain. Germany and Britain are the worst places.
In Britain, the police broke into the home of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and turned it upside down. Her electronic devices were taken. Another journalist, Richard Medhurst, was stopped in Heathrow Airport and all his stuff was taken. There are others. So this is now becoming a method.
Can you talk about your background more?
My parents survived the train to Auschwitz in which a third of the people died. People who were already starving in the ghettos were put on the train, and many of them died from suffocation, starvation and weakness. My parents survived this trip and survived eight months in Auschwitz.
Both of them were then death marched from Auschwitz. There was a first march of the men to Mauthausen in Austria, and to a specific terrifying subcamp of Mauthausen called Gusen II, which the Nazis themselves called the “hell of hells.”
Gusen II was made of very long tunnels that the Nazis had paneled into the mouth of Mauthausen. They built a production line deep into that mountain for Messerschmidt plane parts. There were narrow tunnels for providing and taking out the parts. These tunnels were too small for horses, and so they instead used humans as animals of burden, pushing and pulling the trolleys the half-kilometer through the tunnels to where the production was.
My father worked in there from January 21 until May 8, 1945, the last day of the war. He was freed by the Americans. He weighed 32 kilos (around 70 pounds) when he was freed. My mother was marched to Bergen-Belsen. She had typhoid, and she was saved by a British doctor after the liberation.
My parents found their way to Italy, where they married, and I was born in a refugee camp in Rome. This is my background. I come from destruction, death, genocide.
My parents were not Zionist. They talked to me and my sister about their history because they never wanted this to happen to anyone else. Not just to Jews, but to anyone. For them, never again meant never again for anyone.
Can you elaborate more about your anti-Zionist commitments?
When I came to Britain in the early 1970s, I joined the Israeli anti-Zionist organization called Matzpen. It had a big branch in London of people who exiled from Israel because they did not want to partake in Zionist activities.
I used to know all the other anti-Zionists Jews in Britain. Now there are tens of thousands, if not more. They were produced by Israel, because Israel is carrying out its crimes in our name, and we don’t agree to that. We are fighting for the rights of the Palestinians, to return the refugees, to have a peaceful society in Palestine for Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Zionism replaced the religion, the tradition, the values, the cosmopolitanism, that Jews held for 2,000 years. They were scientists, authors, musicians and workers, but they were not involved in genocide, apart from the genocide enacted against them.
In Britain, we had Islamophobic race riots this year where white working-class people attacked mosques, schools, private homes and community clubs that were Muslim. Muslims are the largest minority in Europe, and like the Jews in the 20th century, they are suffering enormous hatred.
As a Jew, as an Israeli, as a human being, I will not agree to that. I’m doing what I can against it, and Palestine is part of that.
Can you discuss the situation in Britain a bit more?
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he supports Zionism “without qualification.” He’s been chucking Jews out of the Labour Party. I was a member of the Labour Party, and so were all my friends. They were chucked out because they were supposedly antisemites. In fact, I self-referred myself to the Labour Party’s Compliance Unit for “antisemitism” just to show the absurdity of it all. I resigned in 2021 after I heard that my friend Ken Loach was expelled from the party.
I was an officer in the Israeli army and fought in totally unnecessary wars. Most of my early research is about antisemitism. But now I’m told that I’m an antisemite when I just say what is written in the papers.
What we have now, and what you will probably have under Trump, is an even worse system of Zionist values, which claim that to support genocide is okay, but to speak out against genocide is against the law.
This is unacceptable and immoral. And it’s un-Jewish. It’s against the values of Judaism of 2,000 years. There is nothing in Judaism that justifies what is happening in Gaza. This is a travesty of history.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Derek Seidman is a writer, researcher and historian living in Buffalo, New York. He is a regular contributor for Truthout and a contributing writer for LittleSis.
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Exclusive: Prof Haim Bresheeth’s anti-genocide speech before he was arrested for ‘terrorism’
Jewish Israeli academic was arrested for this as Starmer government’s assault on anti-genocide speech continues
As Skwawkbox reported on Friday night, Israeli Jewish academic Prof Haim Bresheeth was arrested by the Metropolitan Police as he spoke to the weekly anti-genocide demonstration, sponsored by Jewish groups IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network) and and JNP (Jewish Network for Palestine), outside the London residence of far-right Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.
Hotovely, an extremist described by Israeli paper Haaretz as ‘the ugly, extremist face of Israel’ who has attempted to justify Israel’s flattening of Gaza and mass killing of civilians, is feted by the government of Keir Starmer.
Yet Bresheeth was arrested for a speech in which he factually slammed Israel for its colonialism, racism and violence, including the mass murder of civilians including tens of thousands of children and eight hundred babies:
A Met Police spokeswoman, in a statement to Skwawkbox, claimed the force is engaged in “a constant balancing act” and that it was acting to “prevent intimidation and serious disruption to communities”. She confirmed that ‘one man’ – Bresheeth – had been arrested for supposedly supporting a proscribed organisation:
One man was arrested on suspicion of showing support for a proscribed organisation. This person had been a speaker at the demonstration. He has been released under investigation.
In fact, as a hearing of his speech immediately reveals, rather than supporting any group Bresheeth made the factual observation that Israel has proven unable to defeat Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis – the first two have been proscribed by the British state – however many civilians it kills.
Bresheeth’s arrest forms part of a state campaign, which has escalated under Keir Starmer, of the abuse of anti-terror legislation to harry and attempt to intimidate British journalists and activists, many of them Jewish, who expose and oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has killed around two hundred thousand people and maimed many more, almost all of them civilians.
In October, police raided the home of journalist Asa Winstanley, seizing his electronic devices even though he was not arrested. In August, police detained journalist Richard Medhurst citing the Terrorism Act as his plane arrived in the UK, before stripping him of his electronic devices and forcing him to disclose passwords under threat of imprisonment – refusal to hand over logins or to answer any questions is an automatic offence under the legislation – and denying him access to legal advice and even water.
A week later, journalist Sarah Wilkinson was arrested as masked officers raided her home in the early hours of the morning, forced to hand over passwords, and police attempted to make her hand over details of her contacts in Palestine, a gross violation of journalistic privilege.
Before them, Jewish activist and author Tony Greenstein, journalist Kit Klarenberg and journalist and former ambassador Craig Murray were also targeted for detention, arrest and harassment. Greenstein was told he was arrested for social media comments supporting Palestinian resistance, the right to which is firmly enshrined in international law. Greenstein succeeded last week in overturning abail condition banning him from attending anti-genocide protests in London.
Prof Bresheeth was released on Saturday morning after a night in custody, but remains under investigation.
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Exclusive video: see Jewish professor’s arrest by Met Police for ‘terrorism’ of condemning Israel’s genocide
Onlookers shout ‘Shame on you!’ as Prof Haim Bresheeth taken away by Met Police under Terrorism Act after anti-genocide speech
As Skwawkbox has reported, Professor Haim Bresheeth – an Israeli Jew – was arrested on Friday and is still under investigation, after being accused of hate speech under the Terrorism Act 2000 for a speech (video) to an anti-genocide demonstration outside the residence of far-right extremist ambassador Tzipi Hotovely.
Now Skwawkbox can exclusively reveal the arrest itself – part of a campaign of repression and intimidation of pro-Palestinian voices by the Starmer government – and the horror of onlookers, who compared it to the martial law imposed by Israel during the 1990s:
Professor Bresheeth, who is in his seventies, was released the following morning without charge but remains under investigation, according to the Metropolitan Police. Skwawkbox is trying to obtain footage of the arrest of a second man, which witnesses described as done with violence.
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UK police detain Jewish scholar Haim Bresheeth following pro-Palestine address
Tuesday, 05 November 2024 6:53 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 05 November 2024 6:53 AM ]
Haim Bresheeth, an anti-Zionist activist delivers a speech in a pro-Palestine protest held in London on November 1, 2024. (Via screengrab)
A Jewish historian and retired professor has been arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police after delivering remarks at a weekly anti-genocide protest, where he said that Israel “cannot win against Hamas.”
Haim Bresheeth, an academic and filmmaker who established the Jewish Network for Palestine, was taken into custody during a protest outside the home of Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in north London on Friday, only to be released the following day after his arrest.
“They cannot win against Hamas, they cannot win against Hezbollah, they cannot win against the Houthis. They cannot win against the united resistance to the genocide they have started,” Bresheeth said in his speech.
He has been charged with supporting a “proscribed organization,” as confirmed by a police spokesperson in a media statement, who also noted that he has been released pending further investigation.
The British government has classified the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements as proscribed.
A video capturing the arrest of the anti-Zionist and anti-racist activist reveals a police officer stating that he is being detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly delivering a “hate speech.”
However, the content of Bresheeth’s speech criticized Israel’s actions, highlighting issues of colonialism, racism, and violence, which included the mass murder of numerous civilians, among them tens of thousands of children.
“Israel has not achieved any of its declared aims, either in Gaza in Lebanon in, in Iran or anywhere else,” Bresheeth said, adding that “they cannot fight the resistance, they have lost every single time.”
Bresheeth, a retired Jewish professor of the UK’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), is an author and filmmaker who, for the last few decades, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
Reports indicate that British authorities are increasingly utilizing anti-terrorism and anti-mafia legislation to detain and prosecute pro-Palestine activists and journalists.
Recent legislative changes, including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2022(PCSC) and the Public Order Act 2023, have significantly expanded police powers and allowed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to curtail the rights of protesters.
The laws have made it easier for law enforcement to pursue harsher charges against demonstrators, while the Court of Appeal has removed essential defenses previously available to them, leading to increasingly severe penalties for those facing trial.
The situation has escalated to the point where counter-terrorism officers have executed search warrants against journalists, such as Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada, under the Terrorism Act, further illustrating the extent of the crackdown on dissent.
Pro-Palestine solidarity groups have raised alarms, viewing the crackdown as an attempt to silence dissenting voices and undermine their right to free expression.
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