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UK Authorities Arrest Human Rights Activist Over Gaza Reporting

Police raided her home and seized all her electronic devices over pro-Palestine posts

Published: August 29, 2024
  |   By Adrian Norman
UK Authorities Arrest Human Rights Activist Over Gaza Reporting

British authorities have arrested a human rights activist and social media influencer over content she posted online.


Sarah Wilkinson, a vocal critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, was taken into custody at around 7:30 a.m. by a team of 12 officers after being accused of some form counterterrorism, according to her brother.


“They said she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online.’ Her house is being raided, and they have seized all her electronic devices,” he said.


MENA Uncensored, an organization for whom Wilkinson has been a news contributor since January, said in a statement posted on X that she had been assigned to cover the Eastern Mediterranean region, with a focus on Gaza, and has been arrested for supporting Palestinian resistance and revealing the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the world.


“We hold the anti-media British government full responsibility [sic] of this stupid act of intimidating and oppressing journalists as well as human rights activist in favor of the israeli occupation entity, and we demand that this zionist-run puppet British government releases our reporter Sarah Wilkinson immediately,” the organization said.



Wilkinson’s recent posts included content stating that “Either you’re with Gaza, or you are oblivious” and a video showing a United Nations vehicle that had been shot 10 times by Israeli Defense Forces.





She also highlighted Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, calling it “a total violation of international law.”



Wilkinson’s arrest comes amid a growing crackdown by British authorities on the free speech of its citizens, with law enforcement embarking on a spree of arrests over online posts.


“The offense of incitement to racial hatred involves publishing or distributing material which is insulting or abusive, which is intended to or likely to stir up racial hatred,” Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales, recently said.


“If you retweet that, you’re republishing it, and potentially, you’re committing that offense,” he continued. “And we do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media. Their job is to look for this material and then follow up with identification, arrests, and so forth. So, it’s really, really serious. People might think they’re not doing anything harmful—they are, and the consequences will be visited upon them.”

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