The UK is stepping up its use of counter-terrorism laws to arrest, detain and gag accredited members of the press in a suspected effort to cease their reporting of Israel’s ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza.
Last Thursday, the home of 61-year-old Sarah Wilkinson was stormed in a dawn raid by 16 officers, many in plain clothes and balaclavas. They refused her request to present a warrant card.
The British journalist said her home was ransacked, with all electronic devices, cash and travel documents removed, and an urn containing the ashes of her mother desecrated.
She was restrained and moved to a waiting van before being taken to a local police station, where she was held and questioned under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act (2000).
Section 12 of the Act criminalises opinion and can lead to a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
The Lebanese news outlet MENA Uncensored said that its writer Wilkinson had been arrested for “supporting the Palestinian resistance.”
Wilkinson, who has been arrested 26 times previously, and is part of Palestine Action and the Rebuild Gaza charity, said she was asked at the police station for the locations of the Palestinians in Gaza she had been working with.
During the interview, she said she was asked by a detective: ‘Why do you think Palestinians are better than white people?’
“I broke my ‘No Comment’ [interview] at that point, and told them: ‘That is a racist question. It’s an appalling question to ask. What you’ve just said is one of the most racist statements I’ve ever known,” she told The Crispin Flintoff Show. Wilkinson said the detective responded by ‘chuckling’.
Earlier this year, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Gavin Stephens found the UK police force was ‘institutionally racist’, saying discrimination in policing operates at a ‘fundamental level’.
The journalist and campaigner, who suffers from Crohn’s Disease, said she was denied access to her medication at the police station and that a medical worker there ‘walked out’ after Wilkinson accused her of not understanding her condition.
Among the items the police handled at her property, according to Wilkinson, was her passport.
“I am now required to hand in my passport in seven days but I can’t because they’ve taken it, but they haven’t declared that they’ve taken it. So, I will probably get arrested again for not producing my passport,” she said.
“My bail conditions are that I’m not allowed to buy or purchase or apply for any travel documents. That includes train tickets and definitely a passport, so I can’t apply for a new passport and I can’t buy a new passport. I can’t claim it as lost and neither can I hand it in, so they can then jail me for breach of bail conditions and search the house again to look for it.”
After her arrest, a group calling itself the ‘Combat Antisemitism Movement’ re-posted a tweet by Wilkinson on X where it appeared she had written that an ‘infiltration of illegal israeli settlements’ on October 7 was ‘incredible’, with the caption: ‘Just a reminder of how she reacted to the mass-murder, rape, mutilation and abduction of over 1,300 Israeli citizens.’
A year ago, social security data showed the death toll from the attack was 695 Israeli civilians, 373 security forces and 71 foreigners, giving a total of 1,139. An investigation by Israel’s leading newspaper Haaretz has since revealed that Israelis were killed on 7/10 by Israeli security forces after they employed the ‘Hannibal Directive’.
Around 250 Israelis and foreigners were taken to Gaza on 7/10, to trade for the thousands of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel at the time, however many more Israelis are now feared dead due to Israeli airstrikes on positions where they were being held. The IDF has also shot Israeli prisoners in Gaza. Its military has dropped over 75,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip, turning it to rubble and creating a humanitarian disaster.
Between 8,000 to 10,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in Israel. There was international outrage this summer after video was leaked of Israeli prison guards raping a restrained Palestinian man, rupturing his bowels.
The Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters denounced Wilkinson’s arrest and said such law enforcement actions against a human rights activist indicated the UK was becoming a fascist state.
He was held under Section 12 of The Terrorism Act and placed in restraints. His belongings were searched after arresting officers told him he ‘had expressed an opinion or belief that was supportive of a proscribed organisation’.
They seized his electronic devices, took a sample of his DNA and placed him in solitary confinement.
Medhurst was initially denied access to legal assistance. When the police later called a solicitor on his behalf, his solicitor was informed that their call would be recorded so his solicitor refused to take the call.
After 15 hours in detention, Medhurst – who lives in Vienna – was interviewed by two detectives before being released on bail. He remains under investigation and must report to a UK police station in three months.
On October 16, counter-terror police detained the journalist, human rights campaigner and former British diplomat Craig Murray at Glasgow Airport after he attended a Palestine solidarity event, seizing his phone and laptop.
On 8 July, the medical journal The Lancet reported that Israel may have already killed 186,000 mainly women and children in Gaza, since October. Among them, are over 175 media workers and journalists who have been killed by Israel, which disallows journalists from entering Gaza.
Nine months ago, the highest court in the world, the International Court of Justice, and a federal court in California, found it plausible that Israel’s acts in Gaza could amount to genocide.
