Pro-Palestine activist Tony Greenstein issued a “rallying cry” to invite support for banned terrorist group Hamas on the day Israel was attacked, a court has heard.
Greenstein, 72, of Brighton, is on trial at Kingston Crown Court charged with one count of inviting support for a proscribed organisation.
The charge is in relation to three posts on his X account on October 7 2023, the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel which triggered more than two years of war in Gaza.
Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000.
On Tuesday, the court heard that in the three posts, Greenstein, who is the son of an Orthodox rabbi, wrote the line: “Please share. Full support for the Gaza ghetto uprising.”
Jurors were told that the posts had links to a blog, which included the line: “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.”
Opening the case, prosecutor Kate Temple-Mabe said that Greenstein is a “prolific activist and campaigner” who “opposes the state of Israel and supports the liberation of Palestine”.
She went on: “There are a great many people who oppose the state of Israel, believe that the Israelis unlawfully occupy Palestine, and that Palestine should be liberated, and who publicly express those views.
“There are a great many people, also, who think that what has been happening in Gaza since October 7, 2023 is horrific and unacceptable, and who wish to publicly express their opposition to it. None of that is a crime.
“The law does, however, make it a crime specifically to invite support for the organisation Hamas, because Hamas is a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.
“In that sense, the law treats support for Hamas differently from support for the Palestinian people or cause more broadly.”
Temple-Mabe said that, although Greenstein did not mention Hamas by name in his X posts, his “reference to support for the ‘Gaza ghetto uprising’ – in that specific context, on that specific date – can only have meant support for Hamas”.
“Mr Greenstein specifically expressed ‘full support’ for the actions of Hamas. He invited others to like and share his post.
“In the blog post, he said that Hamas should be congratulated. He also gave a rallying cry, saying that ‘the time to fight is now’.
“All of this, the prosecution say, was a clear invitation of moral or intellectual support for the proscribed organisation of Hamas.”
Temple-Mabe said Greenstein was arrested at his home in December 2023, and that it is clear from his police interview that he does not support everything Hamas stands for.
She said prosecutors understand that Greenstein’s defence is that the words he used “were not actually invitations of support”.
The prosecutor added that the trial is “likely to raise issues that are political and perhaps emotional in nature” but that it is not the responsibility of jurors to take a view on events in the Middle East.
The trial continues.
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