Jailed for protesting against Israel's attack on Gaza

Seventy protestors, most of them young Muslims, face imprisonment for protesting against Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008/9. Meanwhile, no one is being held to account for an onslaught which left 1400 Palestinians dead and destroyed much of the civilian infrastructure, despite a UN report showing that war crimes were committed.

The courts jailed seven young people on Friday who had taken part in Stop the War's protests against the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008/2009.

Aged between 17 and 25, the defendants had all pleaded guilty to charges of violent disorder at previous court hearings.

Another three cases were delayed for the preparation of pre-sentence reports by the probation service. The judge claimed that sentences must act as a "deterrence" to other people intent on committing violent disorder.

Sentences were as high as two and a half years in prison. The police relied heavily on CCTV evidence, with many of the accused tracked by police intelligence teams on the demonstration and arrested later.

Two of the defendants were arrested in May, in their homes in the early hours of the morning. In one such arrest, police handcuffed the sister of one of the defendants and her husband for an hour while they searched the house and confiscated clothes and her laptop. The sister of another defendant said, "I'll never go on a protest again".

Judge Denniss called the police response on the demonstrations "measured".

Another 50 demonstrators could also be imprisoned in the coming months. This comes after two protesters were jailed earlier this year. Layla Lahouidek and Bana Hablegiorge, aged just 19 and 20, were jailed for 15 months for violent disorder after pleading guilty to "vandalising a branch of Starbucks" at the protest.

This time many of the accused are again under 20 years old – and almost all are Muslim. Protesters were standing up against Israel's assault on Gaza which killed hundreds of people. Many were angered at the images of dead children and destroyed homes.

While the courts have pored over the actions of demonstrators, they have remained silent about the actions of the police. On the 10 January last year, officers trapped hundreds of protesters in the Hyde Park underpass, repeatedly baton-charging the crowd.

Kettled

Protesters were later "kettled" in freezing temperatures, unable to leave for up to five hours. And riot police repeatedly crushed the crowd outside the Israeli embassy.

The police have been selective over the release of CCTV evidence to defendants. They have only shown seconds-long snippets, isolating them from surrounding events. Some defendants are yet to be shown the CCTV evidence being used against them.

Joanna Gilmore, a researcher at Manchester University law school, who has been following the Gaza cases, says: "The police have refused to release surveillance videos under the Freedom of Information Act." "They are using the evidence for criminal cases but won't have it used against themselves."

Police have also refused to disclose whether undercover officers were present during the demonstrations. Over 30 complaints have been made about police violence on the protests. But the Independent Police Complains Commission has refused to investigate the complaints and has passed them over to the police.

And the police have dismissed all but two of the complaints.

Joanna says, "Two complaints were dismissed because the officer who allegedly struck the protesters covered up his identification number and refused to provide it when challenged. The police have made themselves immune from complaints. The behaviour of the police has exposed the hypocrisy of the government's 'community cohesion' scheme, which is meant to build good relationships between the police and the Muslim community."

Brutality

The reputation of the police has been damaged by the repeated images of brutality surrounding the G20 protests in London in April last year. This has changed many ordinary people's opinions of the police. "The police want to create an image of protesters and demonstrations as violent, but their intention with these cases is to intimidate the Muslim community in particular into not demonstrating," says Joanna.