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Comment by willahmad | Hacker News Reader

but isn't it literally connected to foreign entities, with high probability to Israel-Palestine conflict, no?

I don't think so, I never got the impression that Israel is all that big a deal in the UK in either direction.

If they are, they're a lot more subtle about it than they are with regard to USA politics.

The fact that peaceful protesters against the Gaza genocide got labeled as terrorists should be sufficient evidence that the UK government still very much shares their bed with Israel.

Palestine Action were proscribed for a level of violence ("property damage" against the RAF, vandalised aircraft, which makes it sound worse than it is because it was spray paint in the engines) that had previously been considered acceptable.

But "peaceful"? A protest on 6 August 2024 resulted in a charge of grievous bodily harm after an activist allegedly struck a police officer with a sledgehammer, and a protest on 16 March 2025 resulted in three activists being charged with one count each of assault by beating.

I get why they're doing this, but if I'm going to call the Jan 6 thing in Washington DC "attempted coup" (which I do), I have to also say this is not "peaceful".

If the UK shut down everything that was related to occasional violence, there wouldn't be a pub left in England.

Striking a police officer with a sledgehammer?

Don't get me wrong, I have been surprised by witnessing a thrown punch even in a very nerdy upper-middle-to-just-posh Cambridge pub (seen exactly once over the course of about 9 years), but even that wasn't at the level alleged (IDK if found guilty) in the referenced case.

There are people murdered in pubs. People are raped at festivals. those are awful, similar with striking someone with a sledgehammer. Should we shut down all pubs, or all festivals? No. All protests? Also no. Even all protests about one particular group? No.

Wasn't that after that specific protest group broke into a military base and damaged military aircraft? Pretty sure that gets your group labeled no matter what 'banner' you do that sort of damage under.

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