Activist not guilty of inviting support for Hamas

A Jewish activist has been cleared of inviting support for Hamas on social media after the 7 October attacks.

Tony Greenstein, 72, of Brighton, was charged with one count of inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organisation relating to three posts he made, following the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023.

Greenstein, whose father was an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, described Gaza as a "human prison" and told Kingston Crown Court that while he believed the attack was "justified", he does not support Hamas.

The jury found Greenstein not guilty after just over two hours of deliberation.

In the social media posts, Greenstein wrote the line: "Please share. Full support for the Gaza ghetto uprising," the court heard.

Jurors were told the posts had links to a blog, which included the line that the prosecution had said amounted to inviting support for Hamas: "The time to fight is now. Whatever criticisms one can make of Hamas, we should congratulate them on this well planned and audacious attack on the Zionist enemy."

Greenstein argued "congratulating" Hamas was a figure of speech, and called the prosecution's assertion "absurd".

Giving evidence to the court on Thursday, Greenstein said Palestinians had been "locked up" for 57 years and said the "ruling class in this country... turn a blind eye to genocide".

He said: "When a colonial power holds another people down, they have the right to resist."

Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC warned Greenstein about treating the trial as a "political forum" and said the jury was "not concerned with events in the Middle East".

Greenstein told the court Gaza was "a cage in which people lived".

"Imagine you could not escape 25 miles north of here and five miles wide, and imagine having to live there and not being allowed out," he said.

The court heard he had also written extensively about disagreeing with Hamas in his blog which has more than 3,500 posts.

Titles of pieces Greenstein had published included "Hamas does its best to make Palestinian lives a misery", and encouraged those who had "illusions" in Hamas to "think again".

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 killed about 1,200 people, while 251 others were taken hostage.

Since then, more than 73,000 people have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry - figures considered reliable by the UN.

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