A 71-year-old Brighton man has appeared in court at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London, charged with a terror offence.
Anthony Greenstein, widely known as Tony Greenstein, of Belgrave Place, Brighton, was charged over online comments about Hamas.
The anti-Israel campaigner appeared in court today Friday (31 January) charged under section 12(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 with one count of inviting support for the proscribed organisation.
The charge relates to a tweet posted by Greenstein on Saturday 7 October 2023, the day when 1,195 Israelis and others were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.
Greenstein was told that he would face a five-day trial at Kingston Crown Court from Monday 5 January next year.
A preliminary hearing was set for Friday 6 June this year at the same court.
The charge comes after an investigation by officers from Counter Terrorism Policing South East.
Greenstein was remanded on conditional bailed to return to court for the preliminary hearing.
Proscribed organisations include those that
• commit or participate in acts of terrorism
• prepare for terrorism
• promote or encourage terrorism including the unlawful glorification of terrorism
• are otherwise concerned in terrorism
Brightons favourite ‘notorious antisemite’ will hopefully be wearing an orange jumpsuit soon 😊
Grey sweetshirt and joggers actually. We are not part of America yet.
The orange would match his eyes 🤣
No, dust down the gallows!
Why orange? It’s the UK not the US & a bit difficult to be a tisemite as he’s Jewish, so of a Rabbi
Well, he lost a defamation case regarding whether he was a “notorious antisemite” so it can’t be that difficult.
Mr Greenstein’s tweet was silly – I won’t repeat it in case I end up in the same place in this land of free expression. I know that only because I have searched for it online after reading this report. I have better things to do than scroll through Twitter looking for the latest throw-away comment. It was silly because it used the word ‘support’ gratuitously. Just saying in a tweet that you ‘support’ something does not change anything. How many people read his tweet? It seems to have been part of a spontaneous exchange between three people (one anonymous?). There is no mention of a conspiracy. Mr Greenstein may be ‘notorious’, and have a previous record for criminal damage (again I rely on what’s published online), but taking it to the Central Criminal Court seems like virtue signalling on a grand scale by officialdom, aimed at no-one in particular. The practical effect is to repress examination of facts and rational argument, without which we get precisely nowhere.
Don’t worry folks Teflon Tony won’t be going down he always gets off
deport him and Mayor Mohammed to Palestine immediately.
This is an utter waste of the taxpayers time and money. He was baited into using 3 words about supporting a terrorist organisation and essentially said he supports them v the Israeli army. Well, let’s dust down the gallows indeed Delboy, Jesus wept. Throw it out, let’s get to catching and prosecuting real criminals eh?
An interesting stance for the son of a Rabbi to be an anti-Zionist, but so what ?
He’s entitled to his opinion. A lot of people on both sides are sick of the violence and want it to stop.
The most shocking thing is anyone thinking this bloke spouting his opinions is a crime when the Police seem to have given up catching and prosecuting real criminals. How dare they waste public taxes on this nonsense.
Politically motivated vindictive prosecution of a peace activist and a complete waste of taxpayers money.
Those accusing him of being an “antisemite” should take note that he is of Jewish heritage and that condemning Israel’s war crimes, as the ICC and ICJ and every major human rights organisation has done, doesn’t make one an antisemite