LONDON (Dispatches) –
Protesters chanting the pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to sea, Palestine will be free” should be referred to the police, the UK’s education secretary says.
Speaking at a conference on anti-Semitism hosted by the Department for Education, Nadhim Zahawi said it was essential that university campuses cracked down on pro-Palestinian activists, implying that those using the chant were implicitly supporting the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement.
Zahawi claimed that the slogan, the wording of which refers to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, was an indication of “anti-Semitism”.
“Any form of anti-Semitism or prejudice promoting the murder of Jewish people is in my book anti-Semitic and therefore you should act on that,” he said. “This is a proscribed organization and they should be reported to the police.”
Palestinians have acknowledged that the slogan shows their desire for the establishment of a democratic state in historic Palestine, the liberation of Al-Quds and the return of all Palestinians to their homeland.
In November last year, the British government blacklisted the political wing of Hamas, joining the United States, Canada and the European Union in fully banning the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance group, which defends the Palestinian rights against frequent Zionist acts of aggression.
London had already banned the group’s military wing, known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, across the UK. The move to proscribe Hamas means its members or those who invite support for the resistance group could be jailed for up to 14 years.
Last May, at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in the Zionist bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Zionist officers are “hounding” a Palestinian PhD student for taking part in a pro-Palestine conference held in Madrid, Safa news agency reported on Wednesday. According to Khalid Mahajneh, the lawyer acting on behalf of Somaiya Falah, this started on 11 January when her house was raided, her mobile phone content was searched and her laptop computer was confiscated.
The lawyer added that Zionist espionage officers detained and investigated Falah for more than 12 hours. She is being held under house arrest in Haifa, well away from her home village.
Although Mahajneh knew that she was investigated for contacting a “foreign agent”, he found out later that it was because she participated in al-Awda Conference, a pro-Palestine event held recently in Madrid. The Zionist regime, he added, have decided that the Palestinian who arranged her participation is a “foreign agent”.