U.K. sentences pro-Palestine protesters as terrorists

Since July of last year, British police have arrested over 3,000 people for expressing support for the group Palestine Action. Last year, the British government declared the group to be a terrorist organization, making support for the group punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Neve Gordon, an Israeli professor of international law and human rights, was one of the three co-chairs of last year’s Gaza Tribunal, an independent, nongovernmental inquiry into the United Kingdom’s complicity in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

He breaks down the first set of trials and sentencings of several Palestine Action activists who were accused of property destruction.

The activists were not allowed to speak about their motivations in court, and were later sentenced under the U.K.’s counterterrorism laws, which carry heavier prison sentences. The terrorism charges were not part of the jury trial, but levied separately by a judge.