Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
3 February
CST CASE AGAINST SPSC MEMBER COLLAPSES
On this day in 2016, Sheriff John Watson in Kilmarnock Sheriff Court angrily dismissed a charge of assault against SPSC member Mick Napier following the collapse of the prosecution case. After viewing Arabic language footage broadcast by Al Jazeera of the incident in question, Sheriff Watson ruled there was no case to answer, that no assault had been committed and that the case should never have been brought. The case arose from a peaceful and successful protest against the racist Jewish National Fund.
انهيار القضية المقدمة ضد أحد عضاء حملة التضامن الاسكتلندية الفلسطينية
3 فبراير
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2016 ، رفض القاضي جون واتسون في محكمة كيلمارنوك الجنائية بغضب تهمة الاعتداء الموجة ضد عضو حملة التضامن الاسكتلندية الفلسطينية ميك نابير بعد انهيار قضية الادعاء. كان ذلك بعد مشاهدة مقطع فيديو باللغة العربية بثته قناة الجزيرة للحادث المذكور ، حكم القاضي واتسون بأنه لا توجد قضية للرد عليها ، ولم يتم ارتكاب أي اعتداء ، وأنه ما كان يجب رفع القضية على الإطلاق. نشأت القضية من احتجاج سلمي وناجح ضد الصندوق القومي اليهودي العنصري
SPSC statement the day the trial collapsed
Pro-Israel organisations and Crown on the defensive as Sheriff throws out charge against Palestine campaigner that the 70-year-old pensioner assaulted two goons from the pro-Israel Community Security Trust. The CST receives funding from the UK Government and cooperation from police.
Scottish court yet again dismisses racism charges against Palestine solidarity activists
"...after peaceful protests for many years against the racist Jewish National Fund, the Zionist CST (Community Security Trust) attempted a fit-up and I was charged with ‘assault’ three months after the June 2014 protest. Luckily, Al Jazeera TV had a film team following our BDS work that week; footage shown in Kilmarnock Court led Sheriff Watson on 3 February 2016 to rule that no crime had taken place and that there was 'no case to answer', i.e. the baseless charge of assault should never have been raised. Any ‘no case to answer’ is an embarrassment for the PF’s office. Such outcomes, though, don't prevent Scottish supporters of Israeli mass murder from incessantly labelling those organising peaceful, vigorous opposition to their genocidal state as 'thugs'.
More on the Community Security Trust. Tony Greenstein reports his
research into a particularly shadowy organisation, the Community Security Trust, which is funded and controlled by Gerald Ronson, owner of Britain’s largest private company, The Heron Group and himself an extreme right-wing Zionist...
The CST describes its mission as to defend British Jews from anti-Semitism, but has no record of involvement in opposition to neo-Nazi groups in Britain such as the BNP, NF or EDL. On the contrary its stewards looked benignly on as the EDL joined a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in August 2010 to celebrate the murder of 9 unarmed activists aboard the Mavi Marmara...
[T]he CST violently removed peaceful questioners from a Zionist ‘envirnmental meeting’ which was supposed to feature David Bellamy...[and] manipulates its statistics to cause artificial panic amongst the Jewish community, Community Security Thugs Bar Jewish Opponents of Gaza War from Liberal Judaism Meeting...
[The] CST has never lifted its little finger to oppose any anti-Semitic organisation. It is a wholly pro-Israeli group, it shares the racist anti-Muslim politics of the Zionist leadership, has vigorously opposed the boycott of Israel and has acted in effect as a wing of the security of the Israeli embassy in London. Many of its volunteers are ex-Israeli military. See Daily Express’s porn baron owner donated thousands to anti-Palestinian group CST...
We have learnt more recently about how the owner of the Daily Express and Daily Star, the largest porn magnate in Britain, Richard Desmond, has also been funding the CST at the same time as his newspapers have been giving favourable coverage to the EDL.
3-minute video from protest against the racist JNF's last public fund-raiser in Scotland. This video persuaded Sheriff Watson that the alleged assault had not taken place and the case was dismissed. This followed highly unprofessional communications between the pro-Israel Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and Scottish prosecutors as to how the achieve a conviction.