The Blatant Hypocrisy of Section 12 Of The UK Terrorism Act.

The UK and Israel are actually guilty of the terrorism that they are accusing journalists of.

In my latest article, I covered the UK’s extremely authoritarian use of “section 12” in the 2006 “terrorism act” to detain journalists. For a quick recap on the story, the UK used this section of the act- that makes it a crime to “express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed (terrorist) organization”- to charge or raid UK citizens Richard Medhurst, Sarah Wilkinson, Richard Barnard, and Asa Winstanley for their reporting and activism against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and invasion of Lebanon.

This is clearly a grave threat to free speech and a free press in Britain, but aside from that aspect, the labeling of these journalists as terrorists also exposes a grave double standard. In this article, I will explain how Israel and the UK government are responsible for the exact “terrorism” that they are accusing anti-genocide journalists of.

If Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists, then the Israeli Government Certainly Is As Well.

The UK government is using the designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as “proscribed terrorist organizations” to accuse these journalists and activists of supporting a terrorist organization, which is a crime under the terrorist act. Aside from the fact that the people arrested are not endorsing these groups and in reality are exposing the crimes committed by Israel in the name of fighting them, the fact that they are proscribed terrorist organizations and not the Israeli government- which is responsible for far more death and destruction than they are-shows the blatant hypocrisy of what groups the UK designated as terrorist in the first place.

The Oxford detention of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”.

This definition fits the Israeli government-which carries out violence against civilians in the name of the zionist political project- to a tee. There is no doubt that Israel is intentionally targeting civilians in Gaza. Of the people killed in Gaza, 60 percent were women and children, who are clearly non-combatants. Of the remaining 40 percent of men, 65 percent were civilians or the elderly (who are also clear non-combatants). Overall 9 out of every 10 people killed by Israel in Gaza is a civilian.

The Israeli government has also made it clear that they are intentionally targeting civilians. The official account of the Israeli government posted a video to X(formerly Twitter) that claimed there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. This justification of violence against civilians is literally the exact definition of terrorism.

Throughout the ongoing genocide in Gaza Isreal has committed every human rights abuse imaginable including rape, torture, mass murder of women and children, and killing journalists if these acts aren’t terrorism then I don’t know what the fuck is.

Furthermore, Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon were undoubtedly an act of terrorism. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said the attacks- which killed children and healthcare workers and severely injured hundreds of civilians- were “Indistinguishable from terrorism”. The attacks were such obvious acts of terrorism that even Leon Panetta, a former CIA director, admitted they were “a form of terrorism”

Despite all of this the government of Israel and Benjamin Netenyahu are not designated as terrorists in the UK and people who cheer on these atrocities are not charged for supporting terrorism but people who oppose them, and think people have a right to resist them are.

The UK government Is the Real Terrorist.

UK Foreign Policy is terrorism

When referring to U.S. foreign policy, Noam Chomsky has accurately diagnosed that America is “a leading terrorist state” for its barbaric foreign policy and imperialism around the world. In almost all of these criminal wars, the UK has been right alongside the US acting as their “junior partner”. The UK, under Tony Blair, helped America spread the lie that Saddam Hussien had WMDS and took part in the criminal invasion there.

Along with Iraq the UK also took part in Western wars in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria and backed Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen. An analysis from Nafeez Ahmed in the Byline Times found that these wars in the Middle East during the “war on terror” -in which the UK took part - killed up to six million people when direct and indirect deaths are accounted for.

Keep in mind this analysis was done before the genocide in Gaza-also backed by the UK- where Israel has killed over 100,000 civilians when projected indirect deaths are included.

The UK also played a pivotal role in prolonging the proxy war in Ukraine. Infamously, former UK Prime Minister Boris Jhonson blocked a peace deal that could have ended the ongoing proxy war - which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, many of them drafted Ukrainians and Russians - two months in.

Overall UK foreign policy has caused more death and destruction than any of the groups on the designated terrorist list could ever dream of.

Another blatant hypocrisy found in the UK’s terrorist list is the fact that they list the far right Russian paramilitary group Wagner Group as a “terrorist organization” but don’t list similar groups in Ukraine such as the Azov Battalion or Right Sector as terrorists because they are backed by the UK.

The UK Has Armed Half The Groups On Their Bullshit Terrorist List.

Aside from the fact that the UK’s designated terrorist list is hypocritical for excluding Western and Israeli atrocities, they have actively armed -both directly and indirectly - multiple groups on their own designated terrorist list.

For example one of the groups listed on the UK designated terrorist list is Al Qaeda. Well the UK government has continuously sold arms to Saudi Arabia which in turn has armed Al Qaeda in multiple conflicts.

According to a 2015 article in the UK independent Saudi Arabia was “actively supporting a hardline coalition of Islamist rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime that includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria”.

Saudi Arabia also supported and armed Al Qa’ida against Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) in the Yemen war where the UK actively sided with the Saudis.

The UK terrorist list also lists the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as a proscribed terrorist organization, another group that Saudi Arabia has armed. In a leaked email Hillary Clinton’s camping advisor admitted that Saudi Arabia was “providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region”.

Furthermore, the UK also lists al-Nusra Front, Jabhat al-Nusra, Fatah al-Sham, and Tahrir al-Sham as “alternative names for Al Qaeda”, all groups which the UK directly armed in the regime change war against Syria. The UK has given arms to rebels in the Syrian war that have ended up in the hands of these exact groups. As the American think tank “The Century Foundation” found Western arms to Syrian Rebels “have functioned as battlefield auxiliaries and weapons farms for larger Islamist and jihadist factions, including Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate” (i.e. the groups listed on the proscribed terrorist list). The New York Times has reported that many Western arms to rebels in Syria “ended up with Nusra Front fighters” and that some of the Western-backed rebels “joined the group”.

Furthermore, until 2019, the UK listed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group as a “proscribed terrorist organization” a group that would not even have any influence had it not been for the NATO intervention in Libya in which the UK took part. As the UK’s own 2015 parliament report admitted, they were fighting alongside extremist groups in Libya in 2011 to take out Gaddafi. As the report says “Islamist militias played a critical role in the rebellion from February 2011 onwards”

So to recap, journalists who oppose Israel’s genocidal government will be labeled as supporters of proscribed terrorist groups and charged but government officials who sell arms to states that arm groups on the list, and even directly arm groups on the list will not.

Hypocrisy at its finest

According to the UK government, you can invade and bomb the Middle East endlessly, you can back Israel’s genocide in Gaza, you can prologue the proxy war in Ukraine and arm neo-nazi battalions and you can even arm groups on the proscribed terrorist list if their goals align with western foreign policy, but you can’t oppose Israels genocidal, apartheid government or you will be charged for “supporting a proscribed terrorist organization”. Aside from the fact that the entire concept of “Section 12” goes against the basic principles of a free society, the hypocrisy of the UK government is on full display.