The trial of veteran Jewish anti-Zionist writer and activist Tony Greenstein opened today at Kingston Crown Court, where he faces prosecution under Section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000 over social media posts published in late 2023. Following preliminary legal submissions heard in the absence of the jury, the Crown opened its case to the panel of twelve jurors.
The Crown’s opening allegations against Tony Greenstein
Prosecuting counsel Kate Temple-Mabe outlined the charge, telling the court that Section 12(1A) makes it illegal to publish views supportive of an outlawed group without caring whether the post might encourage other people to support it. The prosecutor told jurors that the UK government banned Hamas in its entirety as a proscribed terrorist organisation in 2021.
Jurors were presented with a series of online exhibits, centring on an exchange dated 15 November 2023. The court heard that after another user prompted him to simply post “I support Hamas”, Tony Greenstein responded with qualifications and specific context, writing:
I support the Palestinians that is enough and I support Hamas against the Israeli army
The full context heard in court
To argue the defendant’s mindset, the Crown placed before the jury wider blog posts and tweets from October and November 2023. The prosecution’s case focused once again on isolating very specific phrases from these exhibits—notably Greenstein’s description of his initial reaction to the 7 October offensive as “elation not despair” and his posts titled “Full Support for the Gaza Ghetto Uprising”. The Crown argued that, taken on a plain reading, these words crossed the legal line into expressing and encouraging unlawful support for a banned entity.
However, the complete texts of the exhibits read out by the Crown in open court also placed on the record the wider historical context and specific arguments Tony Greenstein had incorporated into his writing:
Contextualising Armed Conflict, as Opposed to Organisation Loyalty: In the indicted 15 November exchange, the statement began with “I support the Palestinians that is enough” and strictly defined the support as being “against the Israeli army”.
Contextualising the Specific Armed Resistance Role: In an exchange with veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, the exhibit showed Tony Greenstein framing his support around the specific armed role of resisting military aggression, stating:
Whatever their faults Hamas is fighting Israel’s genocidal war whereas you’re criticising those laying down their lives.
Criticisms of Western Double Standards: The prosecution read extracts targeting Western political figures, in which Greenstein condemned what he termed the “nauseating hypocrisy” of US President Joe Biden and former UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (referred to as “Not So Cleverly”) for backing Ukrainian resistance while condemning Palestinian resistance.
Historical Analogies and Published Works: The blog posts shown to the jury framed events explicitly around the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, comparing siege warfare and referencing Nazi commander Jürgen Stroop alongside Warsaw resistance leader Marek Edelman, rather than endorsing religious or political extremism. The exhibits also included a sidebar promoting Greenstein’s published book, “Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation”.
The 2014 Operation Protective Edge Context: The prosecution went through blog exhibits highlighting the 2014 war in Gaza, in which over 2,200 Palestinians, including 551 children, were killed. Jurors saw screenshots embedded in Tony Greenstein’s posts citing a July 2014 Guardian report by Harriet Sherwood, which documented Israeli civilians gathering on hilltops with armchairs to watch and cheer airstrikes on Gaza.
Political Criticisms of Regional Actors: The Crown’s exhibits included passages where Greenstein openly criticised Middle Eastern leadership, calling for the Arab masses to rise up and overthrow Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) for their complicity in the siege of Gaza. He also dismissed the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a “paper tiger” who was failing to assist Palestinians.
Online Reach: Exhibits presented by the Crown noted that the tweets in question had an extremely modest audience, recording view counts between 56 and 151 views.
The defence stance for Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein entered a plea of not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution’s opening case is ongoing, and the defence will present its formal evidence and arguments to the jury later in the trial.
The trial continues.
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