Some notes on the arrest of the Israeli filmmaker and academic at the protest against the Israeli genocide on Friday 1st November 2024 under anti-terrorism laws.
This is for my non-UK friends in particular. I wish I could say I am shocked or stunned. To do so would mean I still believe in the UK as somewhere where rules, laws and morality align. Even the residual feelings of childhood have gone now. This was a few days back, but it must not be forgotten.
We have gotten to the stage that an elderly and unwell child of Holocaust survivors speaking out about the genocide of Palestinians is arrested under anti-terrorism laws in the UK.
Le professeur Haim Bresheeth, universitaire anglo-israélien, fondateur de Jewish Network for Palestine a été arrêté après un discours prononcé à l’occasion d’une manifestation de soutien au peuple palestinien.
⁉️ Son crime ? Dénoncer le massacre des palestiniens ordonné par… pic.twitter.com/I7Gi9V2nd4
— Jérôme Legavre (@LegavreJerome) November 3, 2024
I first met Haim Bresheeth when I was the manager (for one year only) of the Genocide Memorial Day project for Islamic Human Rights Commission. This was his speech. It was one of those rare moments when you hear and see something special and extraordinary.
This lecture should be mandatory in curricula across schools and universities in the UK claiming to remember the Holocaust, claiming to work for an end to genocide, claiming they believe in ‘Never again!’His speech a few days is of similar import. Despite the cause of his arrest, those very same ‘media’ and ‘activists’ who have demonised him, have shared it widely.
Even they know deep down, that this is not speech to be criminalised.
I assume the arrest was simply more of the intimidatory tactics documented so well by my colleague Caterina Aiena and her team at IHRC. The dossier they sent to the UN could not keep up with the sheer volume of such cases, of police brutality and the like against pro-Palestinian protestors and advocates. So again, for my non-UK friends, please understand this. There is no better ‘over here’.
Arzu Merali is a writer and researcher based in the UK. Follow her on X and Instagram @arzumerali.
Image used: Haim Bresheeth-Zabner at IHRC’s 2024 Genocide Memorial Day.
Further reading: Rerun of the demonisation: Why the UK pro-Palestine movement needs to learn from its mistakes
