Pro-Palestine activists plead not guilty and go to trial over 'intifada' calls

Three Pro-Palestine protesters have pleaded not guilty to charges that they called for an "intifada" during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Abdallah Alanzi, 24, Haya Adam, 21 and Azza Zaki, 60, all pleaded not guilty to the charge of using "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intending thereby to stir up racial hatred".

They allegedly chanted the phrase at a demonstration in December and will now face a court trial set for 25 March at Southwark Crown Court.

They became the first activists to be charged in connection with the chant after the Metropolitan and Greater Manchester police forces announced they would arrest people for chanting "globalise the intifada" or holding placards displaying the phrase. 

The police forces said: "We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as 'globalise the intifada' and those using it at future protests or in a targeted way should expect [the police] to take action".

The Met said the three were "identified as being allegedly involved in chanting calling for an 'intifada'.

"An investigation was subsequently launched by the Met’s Public Order Crime team which considered not just that specific chant but other chanting heard during the course of the protest," the Met added. 

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Outside the court building demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, banged drums and called for the charges to be dropped.

Pro-Palestine activists have strongly denied that "globalise the intifada" is antisemitic or a call for violence, and British Jews have been prominent in pro-Palestine marches in the UK. 

Intifada comes from the Arabic root word nafada, which means "to shake off" or "to rise up", and translates to "uprising".

Some uprisings in Arab history that have been labelled intifadas were peaceful, while the intifadas in occupied Palestine involved both civil disobedience and armed resistance against Israel.

In October, following a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester that killed two Jewish worshippers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the call to "internationalise the intifada" was a "call to attack Jewish communities around the world".