Peter Tatchell was arrested yesterday at the pro Palestine march for carrying a sign saying "Globalise the Intafada"

@Geri related: a story on the radio this morning about the banning of posters at Queen Mary University which said “Stop the genocide” and have been deemed ‘antisemitic’.

Discussed from 23:05 in at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qrdz?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile with Dr Yasmin Fedda, a Palestinian, and Professor Anat Pick, an Israeli

@urlyman @Geri

“Stop the genocide” posters have been deemed ‘antisemitic’ ? Are we now inside Orwell's 1984, or Kafka's Castle ? Or maybe Macbeth, where "Nothing is, but what is not." One thing's for sure - it can't be real. Can it ?

@urlyman @GeofCox I have not listened to this yet xxx

@Geri @GeofCox

I have transcribed the initial exchanges with Anat Pick, from ‘Sunday’, BBC Radio 4, 1 February 2026, from 23m:33s to 26:50.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002qrdz

The segment also includes exchanges with Yasmin Fedda, a statement from Queen Mary University, and continues for another 3-and-a-half minutes.

#palestine

@GeofCox @urlyman ah well that's OK then

@Geri @GeofCox

The University’s angle is apparently a zero tolerance approach to ‘permanent’ political statements in order to “ensure that individuals are not discouraged from expressing themselves freely within the law”.

They took a similar position in Feb 2024 https://my.qmul.ac.uk/media/myqmul/Statement-on-removal-of-posters-on-permanent-display-from-University-premises_26-February-2024.pdf [pdf]

@Geri @GeofCox

Quite how expressing oneself factually through a poster is deemed ‘permanent’ and unacceptable but allowing an author to express similar sentiments *on their own organisational website* is not ‘permanent’, is beyond me

https://qmucu.org/2024/03/01/qmvoices-from-the-river-to-the-sea-a-cry-for-freedom-and-equality/

@GeofCox @urlyman I met a Cambridge under grad at a demo. She explained much the same.

Peter Tatchell was arrested yesterday at the pro Palestine march for carrying a sign saying "Globalise the Intafada"

#PeterTatchell has said: “The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law.

“The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offence.

“This is part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalise peaceful protests.”

Peter Tatchell was arrested yesterday at the pro Palestine march for carrying a sign saying "Globalise the Intafada"

#PeterTatchell has said: “The police claimed the word intifada is unlawful. The word intifada is not a crime in law.

“The police are engaged in overreach by making it an arrestable offence.

“This is part of a dangerous trend to increasingly restrict and criminalise peaceful protests.”