Democracy on Trial with Stephen Kapos, Chris Nineham & Basma Ghalayini

On 1 April, Chris Nineham, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, and Ben Jamal, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, were found guilty under the Public Order Act for organising a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in London on 18 January 2025. Responding to the verdict, Nineham described it as “one more indication of a disturbing authoritarian turn in British society” and called for urgent discussion about how it can be challenged.

He is joined by Stephen Kapos, Holocaust survivor and lifelong anti-racist activist who was questioned by police following the 18 January demonstration, and Basma Ghalayini, Manchester-based editor, translator and activist born and raised in the Gaza Strip.

Campaigners for civil liberties argue that this case is about far more than a single protest. They place it within the wider context of increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in Britain. Recent legislation — including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 — has significantly expanded police powers to impose conditions on demonstrations and restrict protests deemed disruptive. The proposed Crime and Policing Bill could go further still, with measures such as “cumulative impact” raising concerns that protests may be curtailed simply because they occur frequently, rather than because of participants’ conduct.

Many warn that these developments pose a serious threat not only to solidarity with Palestine, but to democracy itself.

Join Stephen Kapos, Basma Ghalayini and Chris Nineham for an urgent discussion on what these legal shifts mean, whether democratic rights are being eroded, and how they can be defended.

Basma Ghalayini is an editor and translator, born in Khan Younis and raised in Gaza City. She is the editor of Palestine +100: Stories from a Century After the Nakba, Voices of Resistance: Diaries of Genocide, and Palestine – 1: Stories from the Eve of the Nakba. Her translations have been published by Commonwealth Writers, Deep Vellum Press and Comma Press in books including Banthology, The Book of Ramallah and The Book of Cairo. As a journalist, she has written for the New York Times and Wasafari.

Chris Nineham is a founder and vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition. Arrested in 2025 during a pro-Palestinian march, he pleaded not guilty to Public Order Act charges. He helped organise the historic 2003 anti-war protests, the 2001 Genoa G8 protests, and the European and World Social Forums. A regular media commentator, he writes for Stop the War, Counterfire, and others.

Stephen Kapos is a Hungarian-born and Holocaust survivor whose life story spans some of the most dramatic events of the 20th century. Born in Budapest in 1936, he survived the Holocaust as a child, an experience that profoundly shaped his worldview and later campaigning. After emigrating to the United Kingdom following the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, he trained and worked as architect and exhibited as a visual artist. A Labour Party member since the 1990s, Stephen Kapos served in Holborn & St Pancras under MP Frank Dobson. In 2023 he resigned after being threatened with expulsion for speaking at a Holocaust Memorial Day event organized by the Socialist Labour Network, which the party had proscribed. He denounced what he described as a “McCarthyite” culture under Keir Starmer’s leadership. He is and active speaker and educator on Holocaust remembrance, dedicating much of his later life to sharing his testimony with younger generations to promote awareness, tolerance, and historical understanding He remains active in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Holocaust Survivors Against Genocide.

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