Starmer’s government is taking away your freedom
JVL introduction
The past fortnight has seen threats to civil liberties unparalleled in recent UK history – threats which currently focus on supporters of justice for the Palestinian people but which must be resisted by all who value the right to protest, as environmental activists, trade unionists or other dissenters.
On January 31, Jewish anti-racist campaigner Tony Greenstein was forced to appear at the Central Criminal Court in London charged with terrorism for defending the right of the Palestinian people to resist Israel’s illegal occupation of their land. He will face a jury trial in January 2026. We publish below a Skwawkbox report of Tony’s hearing. His own earlier blogpost explaining the background to the case can be read here.
It’s not only Freedom of Speech that is under threat. In the Double Down News video below, John Rees of the Stop the War coalition sets out the dangers to Freedom of Assembly posed by the current government’s recourse to repressive policing of pro-Palestine demonstrations, seen aggressively enacted on the streets of London on January 18. He says: “Keir Starmer is presiding over the most draconian attack on civil liberties that we have seen for more than a generation.”
Rees says that the Met Police interviewing MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell under caution appears like an extension of the attacks Starmer and co have been carrying out against the left of the Labour Party. The specious reasons given for placing restrictions on the January 18 demonstration relied on the dangerous homogenising of the entire Jewish population as if all were Zionist supporters of Israel – the same arguments used to weaponise allegations of antisemitism within Labour.
NWI
John Rees on Double Down News
[Note: The Met’s Gold Commander referred to in the video as “he” is in fact a female officer, Louise Puddefoot.]
Greenstein ‘terror’ trial for anti-genocide comments set for almost a year off
Jewish left-winger’s bail extended but judge so far refuses to move trial to more convenient location
Jewish anti-genocide activist Tony Greenstein’s trial for alleged support for a proscribed organisation has been set for almost a year off, starting 5 January 2026. Greenstein has been charged under the Terrorism Act 2000 for an X post defending the right of Palestinians to resist illegal occupation, a right that is enshrined in international law.
Greenstein arrived at the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey to cheers and chants for Palestinian freedom from a sizeable crowd of supporters.
Greenstein’s barrister asked the judge to move the January 2026 hearing to the Old Bailey as this allow Greenstein to better fulfil his family obligations, but the judge has so far refused to move it from Kingston Crown Court. His bail conditions, which require him to live at his home address, seek permission from police to travel abroad and not to mention Palestinian militant group Hamas on Twitter/X, have not been changed and a preparatory hearing has been scheduled for 6 June this year.
In a typically uncompromising speech, Greenstein thanked supporters after the hearing and said that the prosecution of himself and of fellow peace activist Natalie Strecker are part of the Starmer regime’s war on journalists and activists exposing the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians:
All respect to Tony for going where those of us who tread a more timid path dare not go.
John Rees’ video is an excellent summary of the dire situation we are in and the big battles ahead.
While Sir Keir is definitely a problem, the real issue is the party he represents – the Labour Party. Labour needs to be dumped.
It’s shocking the way Tony is being treated, and I’m sure he gets our support for his tireless campaigning and standing up for justice and human rights. It’s even more shocking, watching that video and following other platforms, the clearly orchestrated strategy to silence, not only pro-democracy and pro-Palestinian voices, but to silence dissent per se` [under any pretext], to protect the state. Most disgusting is the way a tiny minority of Zionists, who claim to represent “The Jewish community” are accepted effectively by Starmer, as the defacto censors of dissenting voices. The Metropolitan Police are being dictated to by the Board of Deputies, their ataractics and Israel-supporting cut-outs, with the blessing of Starmer. We see journalists arrested and detained, survivors of the Nazi holocaust, and innocent protesters being dragged away and beaten by the Police, to protect the tiny minority. The use of the “Terrorism Act” is a cowardly brush to sweep up dissent and those who challenge the accepted state narrative. This, from a “Labour” Party [?!] which we believed was built on the principles of freedom, justice, equality and the right to protest. How right we are, to challenge this right-wing government and the authoritarian puppet in No. 10 Downing Street. I don’t like saying it, but “we told you so”.
We are facing an unprecedented attack on civil liberties and basic democratic rights by the Starmer government, with the Met and the Anti-Terror police acting as their enforcers. We have a political police in Britain today where thought itself, to say nothing of its expression, is being criminalised.
When I vainly applied to the courts to get back the equipment they had seized from me the Police officer in charge gave a witness statement saying that he needed my computer to ‘gain an insight’ into my mind! Orwellian or what?
We need to build a broad civil society coalition against these attacks and in defense of all those who have been charged – Natalie Strecker, Richard Medhurst and Sarah Wilkinson – among others.
My own trial is now January 5th 2026 again.
I recommend that people read Craig Murray’s ‘United Nations Censures UK Over Abuse of Terrorism Act Against Journalists and Activists’ concerning a letter 4 UN Rapoteurs have written to Starmer. It outlines how the Terrorism Act is being used, not to fight the terrorism that western governments are responsible for, but to clamp down on the basic right to free speech.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/02/united-nations-censures-uk-over-abuse-of-terrorism-act-against-journalists-and-activists/
And thank you everyone for your support
WE have today posted a Skwawkbox article about the UN Special Rapporteurs letter to Starmer and linked to the Craig Murray piece there as well (and also a video by Richard Medhurst who was raised again this time in Austria where the list of items taken from him ran to 19 pages!