Scottish PSC Statement: call to supporters of Palestinian rights, anti-racists, and supporters of free speech
SPSC statement on Cupar trial
24 August 2011
24 August 2011
"Reitblatt stated in court his opposition to international law, his belief that there was no Israeli occupation of any part of Palestine, and his political commitment to Zionist Jews' right to control the entirety of Israel and Palestine, as well as parts of Syria and Egypt...Paul Donnachie, in his moving and principled evidence to the court, explained that his hostility to the Israeli flag was based on his anti-racist convictions, and anger at Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people. Donnachie explained to Sheriff MacNair in simple language his position that 'the citizens of a country cannot be held responsible for the actions of a state'. When he had finished, Sheriff MacNair gave his own ludicrous opinion that, 'The state of Israel is the land and its borders and the people in it...Saying that a state is terrorist says that everyone within the state is terrorist.'"
Student Paul Donnachie was found guilty on Tuesday in Cupar Sheriff Court of ‘racially aggravated conduct’ after showing contempt for an Israeli flag on the wall of a two-bed student residence shared by his friend and an American Zionist ultra. The Sheriff took five minutes after the closing submissions to hand down his guilty verdict and called for a social enquiry report, often a signal to all concerned to expect a harsh, or even a custodial, sentence. Within the hour, Paul Donnachie received a letter of expulsion from St Andrews University. He will appear at Cupar Sheriff Court on Tuesday September 13th for sentencing.
A clear message at Cupar - not racism, but a moral imperativeTo reach his politically-driven verdict, Sheriff Charles MacNair violated every canon of fairness and balance, and ended by making a brief but incomprehensible argument, basing his guilty verdict partly on his characterisation of US citizen Reitblatt as a ‘member of Israel’. Such bizarre formulations in open court were not the only signs that MacNair is unfit to dispense justice; he also overturned his own previous decision, delivered in open court, to hear the evidence of three expert witnesses called by the defence who could shed light on the origins, regularity, and frequent embarrassing failure of politically-motivated accusations of racism in Scotland against supporters of Palestinian rights. They would also have highlighted the dangers for Jews everywhere of the Court accepting Reitblatt’s claim that his religion, ‘Jewishness’ and Israel were inseparable. The outcome was that the defence was unable to call any witnesses other than the accused.Academic witnesses including two leading members of Scottish Jews for a Just Peace and the chair of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign were left in the witness room while Sheriff MacNair exhibited a glaring ignorance of the subjects the witnesses would have illuminated.
Reitblatt stated in court his opposition to international law, his belief that there was no Israeli occupation of any part of Palestine, and his political commitment to Zionist Jews' right to control the entirety of Israel and Palestine, as well as parts of Syria and Egypt. Reitblatt also claimed that the insult to the Israeli flag, a gift from his brother while serving in Israel's Occupation Forces, an army notorious for its human rights violations, had made him unable to sleep or eat for some days. Paul Donnachie, in his moving and principled evidence to the court, explained that his hostility to the Israeli flag was based on his anti-racist convictions, and anger at Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people. Donnachie explained to Sheriff MacNair in simple language his position that "the citizens of a country cannot be held responsible for the actions of a state". When he had finished, Sheriff MacNair gave his own opinion that "The state of Israel is the land and its borders and the people in it...Saying that a state is terrorist says that everyone within the state is terrorist."
Sheriff MacNair claimed he "took no position on the rights and wrongs of the Israel-Palestine conflict", but stressed that he "was impressed by Reitblatt’s testimony". MacNair rejected, and seemed not to understand, Donnachie’s clear exposition of the difference between a state and a population. His description of Reitblatt, a Lithuanian-born American citizen who has never visited Israel/Palestine, as a "member of Israel" seemed to be a key part of his case in convicting Donnachie on a charge of racism towards the Lithuanian-born American.
MacNair dismissed the relevance of the legal precedent of the ‘SPSC 5’ trial in front of Sheriff Scott in Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 2010 which distinguished between hostility to the State of Israel and racism, on the grounds that the ‘offence’ was racist because it took place in a ‘private space’ rather than in public. The logic of Sheriff MacNair’s ruling would be that criticism of the State of Israel will be inhibited on numerous occasions within earshot of Zionist Jewish supporters of Israeli ethnic cleansing and apartheid on the grounds that they are ‘members of Israel’.
We call on supporters of Palestinian rights, anti-racists, and supporters of free speech to assemble outside Cupar Sheriff court on Tuesday September 13th at 9am to support Paul Donnachie. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
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