take the city of istanbul as well as in the occupied west bank. peace be upon you and welcome to eye on islam, the show where we look at current affairs through an islamic lens. this week, our hearts are still focused on the people of palestine, amits israel's ongoing genocidal campaign against the people of gazza. western governments continue to show themselves as allies to the international zionist oligarchy, obediently crocking down. any

expressions of support for palestine with their fully plient media in toe. let's have look at the examples of the uk forces being used to crack down on pro-palestinian expressions of support. in the united kingdom, the rights to freedom of speech and to protest are under threat. protest is one of the most effective ways for the majority to have their voices heard. it is the reflection of public feeling often underrepresented in politics. especially groups are overlooked or ignored, to be heard, citizens band together in solidarity and demand their rights are respected. the right to protest is human right protected by article 11 of the human rights act. however, on the ground, politicians like the uk home secretary are creating an environment of haid where support for the palestinian people is of being maliciously conflated with terrorism. here she advises the police to go outside of their scope. of prescribed organizations and

hate crime rhetoric stating, of course it is not just explicit prohamas symbols and chance that are cause for concern. i would encourage police to consider whether chance such as from the river to the sea, palestine will be free, should be understood as an expression of violent desire to see israel erased from the world, behaviors that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example, the waving of a palestinian flag may not be legitimate such as intended to glorify acts of terrorism. this advice has had insidious effects with children in and out of schools being harassed for talking about palestine, university students being permanently suspended for holding peaceful lawful demonstration, and every day, people being questioned and intimidated by the police or putting up flags on their cars and homes. with the british government and its opposition, affirming the occupying state

it's delusional narrative of defense, people are in fear for consequences in their professional and educational lives due to the pressure being imposed by government and media. despite the law being clear on freedom of expression, questions have been asked about how a palestinian british doctor could be saving lives in gaza while his family are harassed online and subjected to intimidating police visit to their uk home, while the same media glorifies british israelis serving in the occupying military as heroes. in the wake of the ongoing massacres against palestinians, the propaganda war has been accompanied by a war against free speech, a right which is protected under international law by provisions andshrined in various international and regional treaties. however, it seems that now it is the government who decide your rights rather than protecting them. joining us today on the show are two special guests. amar khasmi is a law graduate

with master's degree in human rights law. he's currently training to become a barrister and now helps to run the left legal fighting fund which supports activists and protesters with legal support. and we're also joined by fatima merchant who has years of experience in organizing demonstrations for causes in palestine, nigeria, yemen, and many others. she has been an aved campaigner for human rights and is the co-host of the liberated voices podcast. salamu alalaikum to you both. um, am, if i can come to you. can if i can ask you about uh, what is the british government doing, you know, what is their stance on palestine? just summarize it briefly, because we've had so much coverage on the issue, what are the british government saying, what's their stance? you essentially the british government has been a very long-t term ally of the states of israel ever since its inception and has supported it, in terms of you know the the acute issue happening now, you know, rishi sunak, the prime minister has th': his full weight behind uh

the zionist onslot on gaza, he even visited uh this the zionist entity, he embraced benjamin netanyahu, and he has... refused to condemn the siege on gaza and has also refused to uh seed to calls for a ceasefire, so the british government is, heavily lobbied, heavily infiltrated by zinis interest and they've thrown their full weight behind uh what's currently happening in the uh in occupied palestine. and you know, fatima, if i could come to you, we've heard about rishi senak, what about soela bravman, she's been a big figure in this, um, we've looked in the vt, we've seen exactly the letter. she's written to the police, you know, what, what do we say about her take on palestine? well, absolutely, it's very clear to see what take she's had, um, and honestly her actions have been quite unacceptable, um, our rights to freedom of expression are protected under international law, and she

has been wrongly conflating the palestinian flag with terrorism and anti-semitism, and she's been very clear about that. i mean even and you know, even on her twitter. on her social media, the way she's been describing pro-palestinian activists is is horrendous, um, using terms such as mobs or um violent thugs, all of this is very clear and indicative of the position that she's taking, um, which is quite frankly very prozionist, absolutely, um, and and you know, all of us, i think have been on the protests uh in london uh for the palestinian cause, and we also see the effect that rishi and um suella have had on the approach of the police officers to the protesters and to anyone actually you know whether it be even in their own homes or in their cars. um if i can ask you to kind of elaborate more on what the police are doing um in this situation? well

on the one hand there's been several examples the police being incredibly over zelous, but we should also understand there's been actually quite a big rift in particular between the metropolitan police and the home office on the... trying to stretch examples for public order offenses and you know terrorism offenses and trying to essentially get uh police officers to enforce that enforce you know zionist interests, enforce the uk government's interests, but there has actually been quite a significant pushback on the part of the metropolitan police that or you trying to maintain their operational independence, the received uh release several statements online clarifying that... particular chance or things like this are not actually unlawful um despite you know lots of pressures for them to do that, but of course again that pressure is there, so bravoman met with the head of the metropolitan police very very recently, i think to essentially you know lay on him uh that he needs to be you

know doing more to crack down her words uh her words sorry uh on pro-palestine uh protesters and so we have seen these egregous examples of people being arrested or having these very intimidatory visits made to them uh and it's you know pretty shocking the police are supposed to be this independent body and now you have the government explicitly leaning on them to take action at the behest of really political lobby groups lobby groups like the community security trust for example you know in the media what i've seen is lot of um israeli officials who you know come to represent the entity to defend their position they keep going on about how britain is different, you know, like you, you british journalists, you keep asking us these questions, and they are so surprised by this, um, how is it that british attitudes towards protesting for palestine are different to what's happening elsewhere in the uk? if i can ask that question to you both, actually from what you've seen. fatima,

do you have any experience of that? yes, i mean in terms of the media, um, i think we started off um very, i would say very much in line with.... what the government's narrative has been um so it was very hardlined um um for example when they're asking palestinian ambassadors do you condemn um terrorist organizations or this or that and it did i think it has slowly started to change um and i don't think that's happened in vacuum i think that's happened purely because of the pressure the public has been putting on these media outlets and so slowly we've started to see a change and now it's not just focus on um, for example, do you condemn this, do you condemn that, are you sorry for what your people have done, when it's not really those people that have done it, and this hasn't been something that's been happening in the last few weeks, it's been you know going on for 75 years, so i think slowly we've started

to see that change come about, um, but it is important that i think everyone in the public continues to put pressure. um on these media outlets and social media obviously will play a massive part in that, so yes we've seen a change, could be better, um, i think. i'm not sure if you have an, i agree with that and i think actually if you take the labor party as case study, you had seker stamber who has thrown his full-weight behind the zionist movement, even employed a so-called former israeli spy into the labor party um initially going on lbc and you effectively saying that yeah it's perfectly fine for uh designer state to you know cut off water and electricity and food and now because of the pushback he's received particularly from actually people in muslim communities in britain exercising their voice and you know saying this is completely unacceptable, he's

now been gradually rowing back from that, so i think what you're saying is completely right f, i think and also that the pressure has to be kept up there because these people understand that they are actually accountable to the public, absolutely, they are, sorry, go on, sorry, and just on that note, um, what we've seen on social media is lot of um, shadow banning, and that's where they make sure that posts that are you know of a certain content. aren't shown as often or don't get as much attention on the algorithm. i don't think people should be discouraged by that at all, that's really important, because um, these algorithms obviously do run um and gaana traffic in different places, but if you stay quiet, that's you've done their job for them. so i think that's really important to stress. you know, our duty to um, in. encouraging the good and forbidding the evil shouldn't stop because our enemy is big because you know allah is greater um and it's

not just london that's cracking down on support for palestine, pattern of arrests, protest bans and other examples of intimidation have been playing out in other western countries too. as israel continues its indiscriminate massacres and war crimes against the people of gaza, the world continues to watch on, but many are not idly sitting by and accepting these crimes and protests are being held. across the world with the middle east seeing people rallying in their millions, with authorities allowing or even encouraging the holding of these rallies, but in the west the story is markedly different, claims of being open free societies have been shown up as propaganda, as politicians rush to show support for the illegal settler regime, and thus huge crackdowns have been launched against those wanting to protest for gaza in these western countries. in germany, police brutality has resulted in beatings and assaults of... as the country has banned the holding of pro-palestine rallies, the german regime and

forever browbeaten due to their own history with jews cause these rallies unauthorized. the story is the same in france as their notorious security forces are deployed to crush any expressions of pro-palestinian support, although as with germany, thousands continue to defy the regimes and come out on the streets, regardless of the suppression. other countries like hungary and austria have also blocked pro-palestine. test since october the 7th, while in the usa, powerful pro israeli billionaires have called for university students at institutions like harvard who support gaza to be named and shamed so they can never be hired for jobs in the future. but while regimes are trying to stiffle descent and other powerful interests are trying to intimidate those who do support palestine, there are still voices cautioning against this approach with police forces in the uk warning that they won't be used to achieve political goals and others pointing to polls. show a majority of those in the west support the palestinian cause for liberation. so from what we've seen just now

that you know the the crackdown on on protests is um heavy not just in london but um across the across europe and america. um amad actually i did want to come to you because of what we're seeing abroad and because of what we've just spoken about with rishi and all these um laws that are being uh pushed through the back door by suella uh curbing the right to protest should should should people take precaution and um stay home or should they should they feel intimidated by that? that's my question. well, people should absolutely not feel intimidated because that's the whole purpose. mean, what we're seeing from the government is uh them trying to create a climate affair, mean i'd even describe it as kind of psychological terrorism from their part, they want to intimidate people and make them fearful of being arrested. um, robert jenric for example, the immigration minister who answers to swala uh braverman. uh said or threatened that you know people who are non-british nationals could have their visas

revoked for example for supposedly inciting anti-semitism. all of these uh threats are pretty much hot air, mean they're designed to basically as you say stop people from coming out, stay home because they will feel like well if i go a protest i'm going to get arrested. actually if we look, the number of arrests have been extremely minimal and pretty stream cases generally um and you know the fact that we have actually been able to push back against swallow bravman, the fact that you know people are still flying palestine flags and we are still chanting from the river to the sea, palestine will be free, is because people refused to be intimidated, they came out and said, oh you want to try to make unlawful what we're going to say anyway and what they going to do, they're not going to arrest you know 300,0 people, so you know, and we should also remember that we do have uh freedom of assembly, we do have a right to freedom of expression, of course there are you know limits to that, so for example the match policy and police in certain protests have put a uh schedule 12 order from the public

order act to say, well if you're on this protest you can only go on certain roots, for example, otherwise you may be subject to arrest, so there are those kinds of... limits, but you know, broadly we should be intimidated by these scare tactics that are not actually even part of uk law, it's not unlawful to fly palestine flag for example, it's it's very difficult not to be intimidated when it's all that you're seeing in the mainstream, um, how how would you advise that people get their information from, you know, where where should they be listening to so that these scare tactics don't don't come at them? this is a question for you both of you guys have any suggestions for our audience, please do let us know. well, i think i think really people just need to have the confidence of their convictions by number one being aware of their rights, they also need to be aware of the history, right? if you are educated and you understand these things, then nobody can intimidate you, i mean there are lots of academics that you can consult people like noor masala, people like ilan pape, who've written extensively about these issues uh, but also you know

don't get all your news from western media outlets, perhaps try other ones, perhaps try press tv for example, so i would say you know, go to... alternative media outlets and also know your rights, know the history, know that actually you're fighting for a just cause, and then it's very difficult for people to intimidate you. as a protest organizer you must have lot of um resources at your disposal where you're able to provide people with that information. yes, absolutely, and it is really important that you remember that you do have specific rights. um, these rights cannot be taken away from you any point by anyone, um, and so something. that i've seen different organizations do is they have these little cards and it says know your rights and it's got a list of rights on there. recommend that every person going to a protest, if you are worried about being intimidated or you are worried about being arrested and you're not sure what you can and can't do, keep that card on you. um, and it's very important that we spread this information around, isn't it?

because as am said, um, they do arrest people, but the charges are few. and it is more intimidation tactics from what i can see um so for example um every adult has a right to freedom of expression under limitations of course um but that line at the end under limitations that doesn't that doesn't say you can't express yourself so you need to know what you can and can't do and you do have rights under the uk law and international law so you should be able to exercise them um and if someone's given you something, don't turn a blind eye, use it, it's your, it's yours to use, yes, that's something that i have definitely seen at protests where so much information is being given and people are very much like you know they're there for the vibe and they're excited and they're seeing their friends and they forget something very important which is the information that's being dispensed by the protest organizers um

and these cards that you're saying uh someone living in london i know that um for me personally the islamic human rights commission has been incredibly helpful they've... put up so much information, so many workshops, things that you can download, leaflets, um, to kind of help yourself understand what your rights are, yeah, 100%, but also what i've seen, um, having had so much experience with these protests is that um, you don't need to talk to police, if you are um approached by a friendly looking police person and asking, in blue specifically, um, and they're just asking you questions, oh, how are you doing, what, how's your day being? do you support this, do you support that? you don't need to answer that. it might not even be as you know director as that, it might just be um, like how have you found the protest? you're not here to have a discussion or why you out here today, you don't need to have that discussion, that's not your job and that's not what you've come here to do, so instead of feeding into their intelligence, my um advice would be to focus

on what you're doing there, focus on what your goal is, and obviously that goal is to raise your voice, not. to hold interviews and have these debates and what not? it's really interesting about these lies on offices in blue specifically, you know, you often see them, i remember being at elbet um outside of the weapons, manufacturer for for um israeli military, and they sent specifically sent out, you know, every police officer was white, the blue liez on officers were you know from the community, um, and yeah, their job is to mix with us, be the soft face of the police, um, so point, thank you for raising that, if i can come back to you, specifically with schedule seven, so we don't need to talk to the police, but there are times when we do, can you elaborate on that a little bit? yes, so i mean just to back at what fatima was saying, i mean you never need to talk to the police unless you're compelled to do so by things like schedule seven, because the police's job is not to you find out what's right and wrong, they're trying to

gather evidence to prosecute you, and in schedule seven of the terrorism act, which uh essentially is a ultra draconian piece of legislation, it allows police officers to hold you for you, up to six hours, they can gain access to your devices, they can uh compel you to answer numerous questions so... so i think we have to understand that this is in the context of surveillance against british muslims in particular, there are other people who face schedule 7 starts, primarily the people who targeted are british muslims, what they're trying to do at these protests and through schedule 7 or whatever, they're trying to build up picture of who are the key actors who are engaged in activism, what are the networks, what do they do, is it evidence or information we can get on them that can compromise them, can we turn them to work for us and become from informance kind of toform on their own community, so i think it's very important in these situations to actually never speak to the police, even if you are detained under schedule 7 without

legal advice uh, so always get a sister, no one is too clever to get a sister, you know, i mean i've studied law, i've studied criminal law, i've got a master's degree, i would never speak to the police, unless i had slister there even if they were on the phone, so people need to take precautions in that respect, make sure if you're traveling to a protest or you're traveling at an airport wherever it is, don't have things on your phone that you don't need to have on there, you know, put it a external hard drive, leave it at home, so take the precautions that you can, and always get legal advice, always get legal advice, always recommend that everyone, absolutely, um, you know, you you mentioned this, but it's um, it's at ports that they can stop you right, you know, you can go about your everyday life and they can leave you to it, the moment you get to an airport or you're you're traveling between borders, um, that's the place where you're likely to do it. so that's really really good advice. um, fatima, um, someone's recently graduated from university, you'd probably - been a best position to answer this, um, what kind of

pressures exist for you know people who are trying to talk about palestine, even back then, you know, before, if you can be brief though for us, sure, of course, so um, from my own personal experience, which um, i'll give you an example from few years ago, um, obviously you've got. these different societies at university um, the issue is is that nowadays um you've got the jewish and israeli society as one and so that can be problematic for people um that join a palestinian society for example so it's important again to realize that um as they have their rights uh at university to carry the israeli flag or um to do whatever they so please as long as it's within um the student union boundaries, you also have the same right, so for example, if they are allowing the israeli society to hold certain functions

or bring in certain speakers, um, the palestinian societies also have the same right, um, and along with that, what we've seen in different schools, especially primary schools and middle schools, because it's easier to target children, um, they are being targeted more, and so if if they go in wearing a palestinian badge. or um if they say free palasan in the playground or anything like that, it it is immediately jumped upon, um, so there are many, many resources available, and it's important to remember that um, international law dictates um, that children have the same right to freedom of expression, again under limitations, but it's absolutely ludicrous to say that you know, saying free palestine is something against your your'. and even as a child they should be educated as well and um be taught at home that they have their rights as well, absolutely, no, we are big supporters of human rights on this show, um,

thank you so much, that's all that we have time for today, uh, of course, thank you to our incredible guests today for everything that they shared with us and thank you at home for watching, join us again next week for another edition of eye on islam. this is for palestine. following the military operation undertaken by palestinian resistance fighters on october the 7th, codenamed. alaxa flood, the zinish propaganda machine issued torrent of deception and downright lies about what happened. you mean perhaps in particular was what one of the ones too says first of all that uh what

happened was that the idf, the occupation forces had themselves killed some of the hostages and then of course that we learn later that many of the the hostages were killed in in fires caused by the shelling from tanks of houses in which the hostages were held. fake news was kind of clumsy in a way, but it's very effective because everybody basically you know fed that into all mainstream media throughout, disseminated throughout the western media, so you had the... beheaded babies, you had the burnt charred body of a maybe baby or some image that was put out mass the allegations of mass rape, uh, the intentional targeting of civilians, they think they've done a good thing because they don't have to look in the

eyes of these mothers who know they are... going to die, who are going to die before their children's justices delivered the truth about their child who was not a gun man or a gun woman who was not someone that the british army could just take away and snuff out their life and then cover up the files and hide them away for until 2064 or 2070. those women know they're going to die without having any of truth and without any justice. chris heat and harris doesn't have to look into any of their eyes and it doesn't matter. 'if it was the british army or the ruc or the ira or loyalist that took those lives, those loved ones mattered, and those families matter and what this is doing is inhumane in in an extraordinary way that no one in a developed country in 2023 should even be cognicent of.

the headlines on press tv, the leader of the hezbollah of resistance movement wars israel against attacking lebanon, saying the resistance keeps all options on the table. israel has killed more than 9,000 palestinians, most of them, children and women in his ongoing onslaught in the beseged gaza srift, now people around the world take to the streets to show solidarity with the people of gaza and denounce the israeli regime's atrocities against palestinians.