JRSizer-Brown

Matriarch of three generations | Would prefer a more peaceful world for everyone's benefit | Interests - psychology, science, medicine, politics | BSc., R.M.N.

[Tayab Ali @tayab_ali_]

🚨 In more than 25 years of working on terrorism cases, I never thought I would see terrorism legislation used in a way that blurs the line between genuine national security concerns and the policing of political expression and protest.

The sentencing of the Filton 4 raises profound questions about the direction of our justice system. Counter-terrorism laws exist to protect the public from serious threats, not to chill political dissent, including direct action protest.

If we are not careful, we risk setting a dangerous precedent, one that many will view as driven not by principle, but by a desire to shield Israel from criticism.

I strongly oppose what happened in this case today.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

Today four activists face terror-related sentences for taking direct action against an Elbit Systems weapons factory in Filton, Bristol - a factory that makes drones sent to the genocidal apartheid state of Israel to kill Palestinians in Gaza.

Back in April, I warned in Parliament that jurors would not be told terrorism sentences could follow a criminal damage conviction.

No terrorism charges were ever brought. The proscription against Palestine Action has since been ruled unlawful. The defendants were even prevented from telling the jury they acted to stop genocide.

This is a Labour government defending Israeli death factories and stripping away all of our fundamental rights.

Everyone who cares about our democracy should be outraged.

[John McDonnell @johnmcdonnellMP]

Scale of sentences on the 4 young people who took direct action against the arms supplier to Israel is truly shocking. To impose years of imprisonment for protesting to save lives in Gaza is unjust, especially sentencing on terrorist grounds they were never convicted of by a jury

[Alan Hall @AlanHall2808]

@GyllKing All of those replying really should take the time to read the following which describes exactly what happened. Instead of chiming in with the same bs about the police sergeant having a "broken spine after being aggressively attacked by a violent monster".
https://t.co/KyM840OAla

[Gyll King Post Skip Diplomacy @GyllKing]

No spines were shattered at Filton. The officer walked unaided from A&E. Later a small, hairline fracture to the transverse process (the bony projection that sticks out from the side of a vertebra) was identified & the officer was advised to take paracetamol. Truth matters.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

I was just backing away from the protest and an officer grabbed me, strangled me and punched me in the face — KB518.

I have several witnesses to the assault.

@sussex_police

[Hunt Saboteurs Association @HuntSabs]

Trail hunting does not exist as a genuine activity; it exists only as a myth. It was invented after the hunting ban as a smokescreen for the continued hunting of wild mammals – exactly as campaigners warned it would be, and exactly as hunts themselves said they would do.

Now there is a real risk that drag hunting will become the new smokescreen. Out of the seven registered drag hunts — several of them have direct or deeply questionable links to convicted fox hunting activity and individuals associated with illegal hunting.

A ban on trail hunting alone is not enough. The government must ensure that any new law covers all eventualities, closes every potential smokescreen, and removes the loopholes and exemptions.

Have your say, complete the consultation before the 18th of June ⬇️

https://t.co/fGAUop1iT8

[Matt Kennard @kennardmatt]

Everything they told you about China and Russia is actually true of Israel

Zionist meddling is a national security emergency

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

Calling every Palestinian in Gaza “Hamas” has normalized every killing, rape, torture and act of destruction. Forgive us, Marwa, Motaz, Montaser,& the dozens of thousands already lost -along with the millions still trapped in this genocide- for being so late, slow, and complicit.

[Barry Malone @malonebarry]

Watching this feels utterly chilling. This is a Britain becoming more authoritarian because its government is so slavishly devoted to supporting another country's genocidal campaign.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

The President of Palestine's football association has been banned from attending the World Cup.

He refused to shake hands with Israel's rep 6 weeks ago when Infantino tried to force him, instead shouting out "We are suffering"

Now the racist genocide supporters have banned him

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

On this day in 1954, the US backed a coup against Jacobo Árbenz, the progressive, democratically elected leader of Guatemala, because he sought to restore land to small farmers and Indigenous communities that had been dispossessed by US fruit companies.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

I'd never condone violence against a police officer - this is utterly dishonest.

The jury weren't judging them on a terrorism offence. This is an awful sleight of hand.

The creeping encroachment of terror laws onto protest & removal of our juries should worry all of us.

[Declassified UK @declassifiedUK]

On the issue of terrorism connections, which British ministers and officials gave special immunity from prosecution to the visiting head of the Israeli air force who was ordering the bombardment of Gaza?

When will they face a court?

https://t.co/I4anxwzmT6

[Steve Sweeney @SweeneySteve]

Some of the devastating scenes we saw in Tyre yesterday as we filmed families who remain in the city despite the I$raeli bombardment of civilian areas

One of the oldest cities in the world’s very existence is now at stake with fighter jets and drones constantly roaring overhead.

We found no evidence that I$rael was hitting anything other than civilian buildings and the people of the city invited us into their homes and told us their stories.

Stay tuned for our full report

[Defend Our Juries @DefendOurJuries]

Sir Jonathon Porritt MBE risked arrest under the Terrorism Act yesterday outside Woolwich Crown Court as the sentencing of four direct actionists was being determined.

Met Police managed to arrest less than half of those holding the “offending” due to the sheer level of support.

[Andrew Feinstein @andrewfeinstein]

My statement on the Filton 4 case, as an expert on the global arms trade:

‘These quadcopter drones are key instruments of genocide, used by the Israeli forces in Gaza for surveillance, targeting and to kill. Had they not been destroyed by these brave actionists, they could have easily ended up facilitating yet more killing and devastation. To call those who disabled them terrorists is a perverse distortion of the truth. The real outrage is the continued arming and enabling of a genocidal military campaign that has devastated an entire civilian population. Those who smashed these drones to pieces were not spreading terror - they were trying to prevent it.’

[Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster]

If Hezbollah had killed 15 Israelis in the past 24 hours, including a rescue worker, it would be deemed a barbaric terrorist attack.

But because Israel killed 15 Lebanese, instead it’s called a ceasefire.

[Linda Mamoun @mamoun_linda]

Israel is destroying every single home in the southern 40 miles of Lebanon.

This is not “targeting Hezbollah strongholds.”

These are Christian villages and Sunni villages and Shia villages where people have lived for centuries.

[Chris Williamson @DerbyChrisW]

Last year Mr Justice Johnson granted an early release from jail for far-right Zionist extremist, Tommy Robinson. But he's just sentenced 4 Palestine Action activists as terrorists, even tho they weren't prosecuted for terrorism.

Conflict of interest?
https://t.co/wnezBR7qVz