Jersey-based anti-genocide and peace activist Natalie Strecker was acquitted this morning, despite the best efforts of the Starmer regime to stack her trial on ‘terror’ charges against her.

But Strecker said that while the past year had been one of the worst of her life, she wants the focus to remain on the people of Palestine and Israel’s crimes against them:

I, Natalie Strecker, following one of the worst and most stressful years of my life, have finally been vindicated of the charges of inviting support for a proscribed organisation. I am grateful to the court and the jurats, for their deliberations and correctly concluding that, despite maybe clumsy wording on occasion, I never intended to invite support for any of the groups cited. I also thank them for the respect and fellow feeling they demonstrated to me throughout the proceedings.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank my incredible legal team, Mark and Tim for their assistance during this difficult time, I could not have asked for better representation.  I also thank all of my friends, who have faithfully supported me during these difficult days, I love you all. I thank, too, all those in our community who have offered support and words of encouragement throughout this journey, it has meant everything. To my much loved husband, my mother-in-law, and family, I am so very sorry that you had to be put through this, and I am eternally grateful for your love and support.

This has personally been an incredibly traumatic and dehumanising time, compounded by old wounds triggered by the manner in which I was arrested. I am a care survivor, a survivor of abuse, because of the failings of our government and institutions as a child.

I walk out of court today with my head held high and in the knowledge that it was my character that was put on trial, and I won.

However, the Palestinian people, the most dehumanised community on our planet, continue to be subjected to genocide, apartheid and the most brutal ethnic cleansing. It is a stain on our collective conscience, and I implore islanders to keep doing all they can to bring it to an end, alongside working to end all the other genocides taking place, such as those in Sudan and the Congo.

As for myself, I remain committed to the struggle for a kinder, fairer world, in which the right to freedom, justice, equality and a life of dignity are guaranteed for all in our human family.

Thank you and free Palestine.

Featured image via Natalie Strecker

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.

Jersey police admitted wrongly attributing messages to anti-genocide activist Natalie Strecker during their gathering of ‘terrorism’ ‘evidence’ against her, the Royal Court on the island heard during her trial on charges of supporting a banned proscribed organisation.

After trawling through some fifty thousand messages, the police identified ‘around 35’ it considered problematic. The vast quantity of available messages versus small yield are strongly reminiscent of the ‘fishing expedition’ modus operandi of Israel lobby groups. Inevitably, this has also been the case in other actions against pro-Palestine activists on the English mainland.

Strecker stands firm

Strecker, a peace activist who has worked with Jersey’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, faced two charges related to inviting support for a proscribed organisation. These charges are believed to relate to comments about the right of Palestinians to armed resistance against the Israeli occupation and of Lebanese militia to oppose Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. That right is guaranteed under international law, which the two ‘jurats’ deciding the case have been told to ignore, raising fears that the government is determined to fix the outcome.

Strecker denies both charges. Giving evidence, Jersey cop Luke Freeman told the court that the local force had downloaded posts and messages from Strecker’s devices and scoured them for anything it thought it could use, but admitted that a ‘bug’ had caused the police to wrongly attribute ‘many’ messages to Strecker.

The verdict in the case is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow morning at 10am.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.

The memorial service for David Lear, the photographer who tragically died during while filming a protest in support of hunger-striking political prisoners was held yesterday. Trade unionist Steve Hedley, who knew David well, has written the following about his late friend, submitted with the approval of David’s family.

David Lear if he had to go would probably have scripted his exit from this mortal coil in exactly the way it unfolded. David was taken by God on the 15th November whilst at a protest for Palestinian hunger striker Kamran Ahmed. David was outside Pentonville prison with other protesters and simultaneously broadcasting a livestream of the events unfolding. He even had his favourite tea bags on him as he’d just returned from the shop. We had just witnessed a local racist attacking a supporter of the hunger strike and David had raced across the road to capture the offender on camera. David had health problems and his heart gave way. Perhaps the adrenaline of events contributed to his demise but we can only speculate. He was, I believe, too good for this world and now sits with the almighty.

David Lear remembered

I loved David, we agreed on a lot, Socialism, Palestine, justice, but disagreed a lot as well on things like climate change and the need for political parties. We never quarrelled – which given my temperament is a testament to his patience and good humour. We would communicate daily even if it was to share memes or alternatively vent for hours on the phone decrying the state of the world and, of course, coming up with solutions that often included “rehabilitating” MPs, councillors and anyone involved in bourgeois politics.

David told me he  was of Jewish/German and English heritage, was raised in Wales from the age of 3 and could speak the language. He was an atheist who later became a Christian and converted to Islam later in his life (he never actually told me of his conversion and I didn’t know until his funeral was announced). He embodied all that is good in the three Abrahamic traditions: kindness, generosity, honesty and absolute fearlessness.

David hated hypocrites and challenged injustice at every turn. He stood up to the police, fascists, Zionists, the government, the local council, and to trade union bureaucrats. He did these things to help others and had no selfish motives. We actually met on a picket line where David put himself in danger from thug security guards to cover a story about  Petrit Mihaj being sacked. Ironically David’s honesty led him a decade later to stand outside the trade union office that subsequently sacked Petrit again, for months, covering a picket that nobody in the mainstream media or the so-called left media would touch. The man was heroic, in fact a Celtic hero who loved his native Wales and Ireland, which he also campaigned to free from British rule.

David’s passion

David ’s career straddled working for the BBC on Panorama, telecommunications, independent media and, of course, fearless reporting. His company, Islington Free News, which he ran with his partner in crime Donny, kept politicians and bureaucrats of all persuasions on their toes and accountable. I met two of David’s children, his daughter and his son Lawrence, on pickets they’d attended with them. Lawrence has an encyclopaedic knowledge of transport and his daughter is a campaigner for justice like her father. She’s also a mother herself and his grandchild brought David enormous joy and pride. He is sorely missed by us all, but I know his family are absolutely devastated.

David’s true passion as a campaigner was to seek justice for Palestine. He was outraged by the Gaza genocide and sickened that our Labour government continues to arm Israel. He was fully in support of the Filton 24 and other political prisoners. David raged about the creeping authoritarianism which sought to  silence dissent in Britain by criminalising protest and ridiculously labelling it terrorism. He had a vast knowledge about previous direct action groups like the suffragettes. He rang me in a fury when he saw Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman and many other hypocrites dressed like suffragettes in Parliament whilst simultaneously banning Palestine action as a proscribed organisation.

Expose injustice

A fitting tribute to David would be for everyone to continue his work to  expose injustice and to speak the truth. Above all he would want us to ensure that the hunger strikers were freed and Palestine was liberated. We should all aspire to be like David Lear.

A candlelit vigil will be held for David on Saturday 6th December at 6pm outside Pentonville prison (nearest station Caledonian Road on the Piccadilly line or Caledonian Road and Barnsbury on the Overground). Please attend if you can to remember a class fighter the likes of which will never be seen again.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.

The jury in the case of Jersey anti-genocide activist Natalie Strecker last week was told to ignore international law, according to former Derby North MP Chris Williamson, who went to Jersey for the first two days of the three-day hearing, which closes on Monday 1 December.

Strecker, a well-known peace activist endorsed during the trial by peace prize winner Issa Amro, faces two charges of expressing support for a proscribed (banned) organisation, based on social media posts about Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Williamson told Skwawkbox that, in a show of the government’s eagerness to make an example of Strecker – part of Keir Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on activists and journalists who expose Israel’s genocide in Gaza – the government had sent one of its top barristers to guide the local prosecuting lawyer, even though Jersey has its own separate legal system.

And, explosively, that the ‘jurat’ – Jersey’s term for jurors – had been told that they must ignore international law in the case:

International law guarantees an unequivocal right of resistance, including armed resistance, to people under illegal occupation. Legal experts say that UK terrorism legislation breaches international law by blocking this right.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.