Palestine Action ban indefensible

Palestine Action — On Sunday 12 April, Victoria Derbyshire interviewed Tucker Carlson on the BBC. At one point, Carlson suggested it’s a crime to criticise Israel in the UK. While this isn’t strictly true, it’s certainly the case that Keir Starmer’s government have limited the ways in which Britons can oppose Israel’s genocide.

He also made an absolutely brutal point that the BBC couldn’t answer: if not to suppress free speech, why did the government ban Palestine Action?

Suppression

In the clip above, Derbyshire asked Carlson about the US and Israel’s war on Iran:

Do you think Keir Starmer has made the right calls in this war?

Carlson responded:

I don’t think Keir Starmer makes any calls about anything.

It’s a fair point.

Starmer has denied dragging us into the war while simultaneously allowing the US to use our bases. In other words, we’re in Trump’s war, and we’re in it because Starmer was too weak to say no.

Carlson later said:

It is a crime for which you can be arrested in Britain right now – criticizing Israel. If you say you’re for Palestine Action, you can be arrested. A lot of people have been arrested. So in other words, it is not legal in Britain to criticise another country.

Derbyshire responded:

That is not true-

Derbyshire attempted to steer the conversation back to the war, but Carlson said:

I’m sorry, but what is not what is not true about that?

Derbyshire could have acknowledged that the government has indeed clamped down on free speech related to Israel. Instead, she flat out denied what Carlson said. This was a problem, because part of what he said was “if you say you’re for Palestine Action, you can be arrested” – an undeniable fact.

Carlson continued:

Have people not been arrested in Britain for criticising Israel? They certainly have been. There’s a videotape of it

Derbyshire noted that Palestine Action is a proscribed group, to which Carlson asked:

Why is it banned?

Exactly — why is it banned?

Carlson added:

It’s banned because the Israeli government wanted it banned.

How did the Palestine Action ban happen?

While we’re certain that the Israeli government was happy about the Palestine Action ban, we can’t say it happened because Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order.

At the same time, we can say that Israeli arms company Elbit Systems influenced the decision, as Channel 4 reported and Jonathan Cook summarised:

The four main takeaways from Channel 4’s documentary on Palestine Action last night:

1. It reminded us that the Starmer government’s proscription of the group as a terrorist organisation was done at the behest of Elbit Systems – the Israeli arms firm making killer drones used in Gaza targeted by Palestine Action.

Government officials regularly met with Elbit. A 2023 internal Home Office email, two years before proscription, states: “Reassure Elbit Systems UK and the wider sector affected by Palestine Action that the government cares about the harm the group is causing the private sector [arms industries].”

2. A senior official told the film-makers there was widespread belief among Home Office staff that the government was “wrong” to proscribe Palestine Action, and there was “disquiet” that the government was using Palestine Action as a way to curtail rights to protest and speech more generally.

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3. The government’s terrorism adviser, Jonathan Hall KC, made clear that there was zero evidence of any links between Palestine Action and Iran – a claim leaked to the press by government officials on the same day Palestine Action was proscribed. Private Eye had already reported in November that the claim was concocted by a PR firm for Elbit Systems.

4. Additionally, Lord Walney, the government’s former “independent” adviser on political violence, who has been at the forefront of demanding even more draconian legislation to ban protest in relation to Israel and its genocide, struggled through his interview.

It was only too clear that his views on the subject had nothing to do with the public good but were shaped by his ties to the arms industries and his role as an Israel lobbyist.

What the programme made clear was that Starmer’s government made the unprecedented decision to declare Palestine Action a terrorist organisation not because the group is a terrorist organisation but because large corporations – arms firms like Elbit – have captured the UK government.

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Oh, and for further evidence for how cucked the UK is by the US and Israel:

Shifting tides

In the US, Democrats and commentators have argued that Carlson is attacking Israel for cynical reasons. We’re sure that Carlson is thinking about his own career first and foremost, but that doesn’t change the fact that many of his criticisms about Israel and its relationship with the US are correct.

The dam of public opinion on Israel has burst at this point. Politicians can deal with that reality and join us on the right side of history, or they can get washed away.

Make no mistake; the proscription of Palestine Action was and always has been an attempt to limit criticism of Israel.

We oppose genocide, and we support all those who are saying the same thing.

Featured image via the BBC