Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) Activists Arrested for Protest Action. Clampdown on Dissenting Voices Continues.

Clampdowns by the establishment continue from Scotland to the North of Ireland and afar; dissenting voices are being targeted for sounding the alarm & protesting genocide.

Six SPSC activists were arrested by police in Scotland for BDS protest action: yet another attempt at silencing anyone dissenting or protesting crimes of the Israeli colonial project.

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign LINK

Activists took part in a peaceful protest in the Home Bargains store in Aberdeen due to the continued stocking of Israeli blood products. The activists took part in the removing of Israeli products from the shelves, putting them into trolleys and labelling them with Boycott, Divest, and Sanction stickers so people would be aware of the situation.

They also unfurled banners at the store, making customers aware of the store's sale of Israeli blood products. Subsequently, police turned up and began to take heavy-handed actions against the activists, arresting six of them. The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign released statements after the action and arrests, calling on the Scottish people to maintain their stance in boycotting and divesting from those blood products and to continue to stand against all forms of repression.

“The disproportionate and again heavy-handed response by Police Scotland, including one armed police officer, highlights the continued efforts by Police Scotland to harass, intimidate, and intentionally attempt to prevent people from exercising their lawful right to protest.

“We call on all in our community, the students, academic staff, trade union members, workers, and everyone who believes in human rights and in doing the right thing, to stand with us in resisting all forms of repression.”

One activist was remanded in custody and charged; she denied all the allegations levelled at them. The five others have also been charged, and court cases are to be scheduled at a future date.

Thank you to Dx on Substack for sharing these. SPSC: NO ONE LEFT BEHIND

Protest held in solidarity with those arrested for peaceful protest in Home Bargains Aberdeen.

This situation with the arrest of the activists should be considered in the context of the UK and West's wider policies in the clampdown of ANY dissenting voices it would seem, including in the US silencing people who dare speak out against the empires narrative around the Israeli colonial project and its crimes.

Backed and fully supported by the same governments who now continue to clamp down on activists, journalists, and ordinary people. Most recently, Ali Hasan Abunimah, co-founder and co-host of the Electronic Intifada, was detained in Switzerland for his work on Palestine and uncovering the true nature of the occupation and its crimes.

Of course this was not the first time Ali had been arrested or detained for his work; in fact, it wasn't the first time one of the Electronic Intifada team had been detained. Aisa was another journalist who had been targeted in the past for his work.

Much like Richard Medhurst, who too faces the brunt of a censorship campaign after he was arrested firstly in the UK and held on "terror charges," he then, while in Austria, was detained again for his work with all his devices confiscated, a basic attempt at cutting him off from being able to do his work.

In January, Chris Nineham, the chief steward of the Palestine march in London, was detained by the Metropolitan police for protesting in an event attended by MPs John McDonald and Jeremy Corbyn. Both Chris and another man were charged with "public order offenses," marking another occasion of censorship and clamping down on dissenting voices. The likes of Germany and the Netherlands violently breaking up Palestinian solidarity demonstrations, locking up activists, and taking part in coordinated smear campaigns.

These people, part of the ruling and political class, effectively try to criminalize the ordinary working-class man and woman for standing up against the clear injustice and violations of humanity. The continued clamping down on those speaking out against the sheer hypocrisy and inequality of the imperialist system both at home and on the international stage, the world's institutions have been made impotent in the face of genocide, and the highest courts have been threatened and blackmailed by the foremost imperialist powers.

This is yet another manifestation of a wider problem, a wider rot that permeates within the capitalist system: the ever-degrading rights and liberties, the shutting down of dissenting voices, and the criminalization of protest action. It’s all connected.

These are but a few of those who have been affected by the wider censorship campaign both on and offline against people who dare to dissent or protest the brutal Israeli colonial project or point out the contradictions of the imperialist narratives wherever we find them.