WHO SAYS SANTA DOESN’T KNOW* who’s been naughty or nice? Well, I guess I do.
Because the rewards for being bad pay off so much better than anything parlayed by lame do-gooders who appear on our screens and in the news every so
often. And it’s hard to deny that karma—while it may be there in some undetermined
future—for the here-and-now it mostly sucks.
ACTING QUICKLY, the government pushed through legislation that
“proscribed” or officially banned Palestine Action (PA) within the United
Kingdom, labelling it a “terrorist entity”. Under the new law, there can be no
public support given to the group, or funds and other aid supplied to it. Of
course, no one can join the group that has had its website and social media
presence scrubbed. Even expressing support for the group in peaceful protests
at Parliament Square in London, wearing tee-shirts and carrying placards with “I
am against Genocide. I support Palestine Action” on them can get you arrested under
Britain’s expanded “terror laws”. And wearing keffiyehs and chanting “From
the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be Free” are definite no-nos, condemned by the government as promoting violence and anti-semitism.
IN BRITAIN,
the crackdown on protesters demonstrating their
support for the banned direct-action group have reached absurd levels with over 2100 arrested in England and Wales since the June
proscription of PA with 2,000 expected to go to trial in 2026. So far, one-hundred
and twenty have been charged with “low level terrorism offences”1, including
83-year-old Reverend Susan Parfitt and a mannequin. They
have been charged under the terrorism act and
are at ground zero for the government’s draconian legislation curbing freedom
of expression and peaceful assembly.
AS FOR Palestine Action, itself, it did not target individuals in any manner. No threats or incitements
to violence were made. They attacked physical assets—buildings, machinery, and
now aircraft. Such activity is not a threat to national security, and to
use a charge under the terrorism statutes is a dangerous overreach by the
government. Rather, PA’s direct actions are in the realm of property damage, which
are criminal acts, granted, but ones that can be adjudicated and punished under
general criminal law procedures. Observers conclude the government’s use of
proscription and charging Palestine Action (and its growing number of supporters) with ‘terrorism’ under an ever-expanding
definition of the word, is a way to get around the likely prospect that juries, impanelled in trials of PA members accused of criminal damage to property belonging to a
company or the state, entities currently supplying the tools of genocide to rogue,
apartheid Israel, would consistently fail to convict them on anything larger than a
parking ticket.
👉FUN FACT: There are Palestine Action members in prison awaiting trial for actions taken prior to June’s Brize Norton action. Called collectively
the “Filton24” and “Brize Norton5”, two members have been on remand for over a year
which is contrary to Britain’s legal practice of pretrial detentions.
Worryingly, several members of the imprisoned Filton24 have gone on hunger strikes,
with four considered medically at risk without solid food. Two have been
refusing food for nearly seven weeks. One has been hospitalized, but only after
MP Zarah
Sultana took up her case and lobbied for the PA member to get
immediate medical care.
Folks, will we
have to wait for one of the hunger strikers to die before any of their demands
are aired and addressed, demands like:
“Immediate
bail, the right to a fair trial (which they say would include the release of
documents related to “the ongoing witch-hunt of activists and campaigners”),
ending censorship of their communications, “de-proscribing” Palestine Action,
which is classed as a ‘terrorist’ group, and the shutting down of Elbit Systems,
the Israel-based defence manufacturer with several UK factories.
The
protesters have also called for an end to their alleged censorship in prison,
accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books.
Looking
ahead, the six prisoners are expected to be held for more than one year until
their trial dates, well beyond the UK’s six-month pre-trial detention limit.” (Al Jazeera)
👉FUN FACT: Just one more story of Christmas cheer to warm the cockles of your
heart as you sit with the family around your cozy hearth roasting chestnuts:
There have been jury trials in England since the late Saxon period of
the 12th century. Recent legislation by cockroach Secretary of State for
Justice David Lammy has rescinded the right of defendants to a jury trial if
the crime they are charged with is likely to have a sentence of less than three
years imprisonment (he originally wanted five). Instead, a judge or magistrate will
be the final arbiter in such court cases. What say ye prompted the change? The
backlog of cases in many jurisdictions in England and Wales is one reason given
for blaming jury trials for clogging the courts with ‘small change’ crimes. I
have no idea if jury trials are the culprit here, but…yeh…methinks they came up
with this scam to ensure Palestine Action members get up to three years
imprisonment for their crimes if found guilty by a judge. The British
government feared, and rightly so, that with a jury of their peers, the PA defendants stand a very good chance of being found not guilty by jurors that
believe the direct-action group’s members were acting in the public interest,
or else could fine them nominal amounts to pay in compensation for the damage their protests caused.
ALSO, we should
watch next year to see if civil suits are launched against the activists, perhaps even from
other government agencies. Is that a 'conspiracy theory'? Let’s see what
happens when the PA members’ trials start next year. Let’s also watch what
happens to the Filton24 and Brize Norton5 currently remanded in prison. Will
they be granted bail or remain incarcerated until their trial dates which could come as late as the fall
of next year? If they are kept inside—it will be obvious that “lawfare” is at play. If they are harassed
by lawsuits or pursued by over-zealous minions of the government, then we’ll
know that the process of having to spend so much time and energy in and out of prison, of encurring ever-growing legal fees, with constant 'bombardments' by government bureaucracies and corporate interests is the
punishment. And don't forget the roughly two-thousand PA supporters who have been arrested. What will be the "terror" charge they receive, and if found guilty, what will be their sentence? Stay tuned.
👉In Canada, what happened to the trucker protesters in 2022, with the govenment freezing people’s
bank accounts, court appearances, court delays, legal expenses is an another example of lawfare at its
best/worst, depending on which side you’re on.2 We are, of course, reminded of
Julian Assange who spent five years in a maximum-security prison until he got
his day in court. His case is a prime example of the rapacious nature of lawfare and, in the case of Palestine Action members and its supporters, the Starmer government's heavy-handed use of new "Terror Laws".
👉This new "terror" legislation is meant to chill dissent, to dissuade anyone contemplating similar acts of civil disobedience, like the property damage caused by Palestine Action (and its shining a light on the Starmer government's active support of genocide in Gaza). The government also wants to crackdown on the rabble and those members of the public rallying in PA's defence with protests and placards. Nevertheless, using the new terror laws to silence protests against government perfidy is a nice touch, Minister Lammy. Let’s get those airplanes spic-and-span but
keep helping Israel bomb babies in the meantime.
CHEERS, JAKE.
AND MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS!
_______________________________________
* That Santa’s “gonna find out who's naughty or nice” presumably means he’ll know where to make deliveries after he reviews 2025’s register for offenders and do-gooders. It may also be a veiled threat by Santa’s intel community that bad folk are at risk of being ‘found out’ or “doxed”, perhaps an unintended admission that Santa and his elf army operate a globe spanning blackmail ring. Just sayin’. [A conspiracy theory that’s been debunked for centuries. Also, Jake's stocking was empty this year. Ed.]
1. A charge that nevertheless comes with a potential six-months in jail.
2. In
April this year two chief organizers of the Trucker Protest rec'd several
months of house arrest followed by a probationary period. Ed.
. 
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