Demonstrations over the same issue were held in London and Kuala Lumpur last weekend. In one, the authorities kept order in good cheer. In the other, heavy-handed policing led to hundreds of arrests, amid much commentary about a fearful chilling of free speech.
In the past, some might have expected the second to have been the demo in Kuala Lumpur, or in Jakarta or Bangkok, where there have also been pro-Palestinian rallies. But it was in London that 522 people were arrested for protesting against the British government’s decision to ban a group called Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000.
What has Palestine Action done? Activists broke into a Royal Air Force base in June and sprayed two planes with red paint, but the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori has quoted the UK’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre’s assessment that “Palestine Action does not advocate for violence against persons”. British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, however, insists that it “is not a non-violent organisation”, and has defended the proscription, which makes membership of, or support for, Palestine Action a criminal offence, with a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
This puts the group and its supporters in the same legal bracket as Al Qaeda or ISIS – which has been condemned by the former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain as “intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong”. Both the suffragettes who fought for the right of women to vote in Britain, and the anti-apartheid protests that Mr Hain led as a young man, would have been labelled as terrorist under this order, he told the House of Lords earlier this month. “Frankly I am deeply ashamed,” he said.
Mr Hain is not alone in this view. Many believe that this is yet another case of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government bending over backwards to please supporters of the Israeli administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by restricting entirely legitimate criticism of what a host of distinguished scholars and organisations have called Israel’s “genocidal” campaign in Gaza. He may not have had this issue in mind, but US Vice President JD Vance was at least partly right when he warned against Europe going down a “very dark path” on free speech during his recent stay with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
“The entire collective West got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse range of opinions,” he said. What is the proscription of Palestine Action, if not exactly that? The very obviously respectable people who have been arrested for supporting the group makes the decision appear even more draconian. No wonder Mr Hain declared that the ban would “end in tears for the government”, and if a legal challenge succeeded, it “would be a mercy to all concerned, including the government”.
European-style free speech has not been the norm in most South-East Asian countries. Nevertheless, when regional readers put forth legislation that further limits freedom of expression, they can and do defend it stoutly. In 2016, then-Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak introduced two laws on terrorism and security that critics said curtailed civil liberties. His response? “I make no apology for placing the safety and security of all Malaysians as my foremost priority,” he said. “The best way to protect civil liberties is to ensure national security.”
Likewise, Singapore’s PAP government had no qualms earlier this year about passing The Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act, which allows the Home Minister to issue restraining orders against individuals or entities “for conduct that causes feelings of enmity, hatred, ill will or hostility between different races in Singapore”. Anyone breaking an order faces up to two years in prison.
Britain’s Labour government, on the other hand, is currently defending what is seen by most people as indefensible.
Look at who has been arrested over the proscription of Palestine Action – they include a retired magistrate, a war hero colonel, and Jonathon Porritt, a baronet and former environmental adviser to King Charles III. These are hardly dangerous revolutionaries. Pointing out that about half of those arrested over the weekend were aged 60 and above, including almost 100 in their seventies and 15 in their eighties, the editor of Prospect magazine, Alan Rusbridger, published an article headlined: “Dubbing tame pensioners as ‘terrorists’ makes a farce out of the Terrorism Act – and freedom of speech.”
“It’s a funny old world when Margaret Thatcher had a greater sense of individual liberty than Keir Starmer,” wrote Rusbridger, who is also a former editor of The Guardian.
It’s a funny old world when there is greater free speech in South-East Asia than in Europe and the US, where politicians never stop crowing about their love of liberty
But Britain is far from alone. In the US and Germany, the authorities have attempted to deport pro-Palestinian activists. Social media posts are being scanned, and the possibility of being detained or put on the first plane home is no joke. A Qatari friend was recently due to attend an old associate’s wedding in America, but told me he thought he’d better not risk it. His comments on X don’t support terrorism, but he does repost reports critical of Israel. He was probably right not to go.
So on an issue that is one of the most crucial of the day, the UK, Europe and the US have been denying the right to free speech, whereas in South-East Asian countries – so often criticised on human rights issues – citizens can have their say. And people can see why.
This is very dangerous in terms of isolating Israel even further; it risks fuelling anti-Semitism, and the allegations that the so-called Israeli lobby influences western governments and western media – with honourable exceptions – is now widespread. There was a time when to state that view was to expect an accusation of anti-Semitism to follow pretty soon, and in the past, I have pushed back against anything that smacked of age-old conspiracy theories.
But when an eminent Malaysian businessman and one of the country’s top diplomats talked to me about the Israeli lobby’s dominance over the West in the past week, I couldn’t demure. They would have been incredulous if I had tried to argue to the contrary. Just take the issue of Palestine Action.
To echo Rusbridger, it’s a funny old world when there is greater free speech in South-East Asia than in Europe and the US, where politicians never stop crowing about their love of liberty. But liberty for whom? Not for Palestinians or their supporters, it would appear.
A reckoning will come – indeed, it is already coming – and contrary to their efforts, it may hurt the state and the people that these politicians have been covering up for the most.
Company%20profile
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Company%20profile
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Brown/Black belt finals
3pm: 49kg female: Mayssa Bastos (BRA) v Thamires Aquino (BRA)
3.07pm: 56kg male: Hiago George (BRA) v Carlos Alberto da Silva (BRA)
3.14pm: 55kg female: Amal Amjahid (BEL) v Bianca Basilio (BRA)
3.21pm: 62kg male: Gabriel de Sousa (BRA) v Joao Miyao (BRA)
3.28pm: 62kg female: Beatriz Mesquita (BRA) v Ffion Davies (GBR)
3.35pm: 69kg male: Isaac Doederlein (BRA) v Paulo Miyao (BRA)
3.42pm: 70kg female: Thamara Silva (BRA) v Alessandra Moss (AUS)
3.49pm: 77kg male: Oliver Lovell (GBR) v Tommy Langarkar (NOR)
3.56pm: 85kg male: Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE) v Rudson Mateus Teles (BRA)
4.03pm: 90kg female: Claire-France Thevenon (FRA) v Gabreili Passanha (BRA)
4.10pm: 94kg male: Adam Wardzinski (POL) v Kaynan Duarte (BRA)
4.17pm: 110kg male: Yahia Mansoor Al Hammadi (UAE) v Joao Rocha (BRA
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
More Iraq election coverage:
The%20specs
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Mobile phone packages comparison
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
THE%20SPECS
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ZIMBABWE V UAE, ODI SERIES
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday - Zimbabwe won by 7 wickets
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Cry Macho
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Dwight Yoakam
Rating:**
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
Spider-Man%202
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
