Palestine supporters say UK’s clamp down on solidarity efforts threaten civil liberties

Amid the ongoing devastation and heavy barrage of Israeli bombs in Gaza, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sitta a plastic surgeon with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been carrying out humanitarian work and nursing the wounded in the besieged region.

In recent days the world has been moved by disastrous images. In the densely populated enclave, numerous buildings have been levelled by Israeli airstrikes, including a hospital. At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombing of Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza's Health Ministry

It follows the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel that has killed over 1,400 Israelis while Gaza continues to face Israel’s siege on food, water, fuel and electricity. Tensions remain high with Israel calling on citizens to evacuate the north.

Prominent pro-Palestinian voice and a trained plastic surgeon, Abu-Sitta, says UK authorities have been alerted to his work in Gaza turning up to his home.

“British counter terrorism police has showed up at my house in the UK and harassed my family,” he alleged on Monday on X, formerly Twitter.

The medical professional later appeared on the BBC’s show, Newsnight, describing the alleged event as “a brutish attempt of harassment and silencing.”

He said authorities asked specific details - from the hospital he was working in, the purpose of his business, who financed his ticket and the charity he works for.

Abu-Sitta said he has since spoken to lawyers and remains committed to speaking up for Palestinians who have no safe shelters amid the heavy airstrikes hitting generations of families.

Meanwhile in the UK, citizens accustomed to denouncing the plight Palestinians face say the authorities recent behaviour has raised concerns.

“What is happening is you have the British government saying absolutely nothing or not imposing the same rules to the British Israeli supporters yet to the British Palestinian supporters, we are having police regulators and we're having the government in effect - threatening us (that) what we might be doing is criminal and that of course is creating a fear amongst the pro-Palestinian supporters and this is a very unhealthy situation in any country,“ says Ismail Patel, Chairman of Friends of Al Aqsa, a pro-Palestine organisation.

He says the “directive” stems from the Home Secretary Suella Braverman who wrote a letter that critics say links the Palestinian national flag and political slogans to terrorism.

“Behaviours that are legitimate in some circumstances, for example the waving of a Palestinian flag, may not be legitimate such as when intended to glorify acts of terrorism,” she wrote.

Braverman is also facing pushback from her detractors who say the UK is clamping down on their civil liberties in relation to showing Palestinian solidarity.

“What we are seeing here really is the British government's alliance with Israel and its attempt to provide cover to carry on with its human rights violations and trying to impose that on British subjects and that is what I think is concerning,” Patel tells TRT World.

He says pro-Palestinian supporters are being ‘intimidated” in relation to what he describes as fundamental liberties - from human rights and freedom of speech that also impact organisations.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a group based in London promoting solidarity with the Palestinian people described Braverman’s instruction to heads of English and Welsh Police as "deeply concerning. " In a written statement to TRT World they insist such actions threaten civil liberties and will likely lead to the "dehumanising of Palestinians" in widespread political discourse.

PSC says that police undertaking such action denies "the right of Palestinians to fly a flag which is the symbol both of their nationhood and struggle for liberation from Israel’s system of oppression."

The group calls it an "assault" on citizens demonstrating solidarity for Palestinian people's "legitimate desire" for their rights to be realised, "including the fundamental right of self-determination".

For pro-Palestinian supporters such behaviour by the British authorities appears to be creating a deep sense of unease.

Patel insists that “we're asking for justice for the Palestinians and wanting national law to be upheld. This is of great concern.”

In comparison to mass mobilisations in the UK’s capital, London, he describes the UK government's pushback against Palestinian supporters as “unprecedented”.

Ahead of the US-led invasion of Iraq, on February 15 2003 an estimated 1.5 million citizens mobilised in London to denounce what critics saw as UK warmongering.

“In Britain, particularly I was at the forefront of organising and marching against the war in Iraq and over a million people marched. At no time the British government stopped us (from) condemning our own government - the British government - but now they're trying to stop us,” says Patel.

On Saturday 14 October, several groups including PSC held a mass rally with an estimated 150,000 in attendance in London to demonstrate against Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Around 5,000 people mobilised outside the UK Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday 18 October in a vigil for Palestinians killed in airstrikes.

PSC is continuing to push to end violence in the region. They say it means dealing with the root causes of the issue that require “the international community to hold Israel to account for its decades-long imposition of an illegal military occupation and system of apartheid."

While the Chilcot report condemned the UK's role in the Iraq invasion, Patel vividly remembers the debunked falsehoods concerning the so-called weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were never found that he says cost the lives of an estimated million people.

On October 21 midday, PSC and other groups are set to hold the "National March for Palestine - Stop the War on Gaza!" at London's iconic Marble Arch in a bid to end the war on Gaza.

Ahead of the march, Patel says, “now we are seeing the same thing - that there are lies being manufactured. Palestinians are being dehumanised and thousands of people are losing their lives through these lies.”