Palestine activists convicted of harassing minister

Two women have been convicted of harassing a government minister.

Cardiff Magistrates' Court heard that justice minister and Pontypridd MP Alex Davies-Jones was "terrified" after being confronted by two pro-Palestine activists while campaigning.

Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring found Ayeshah Behit, 31, and Hiba Ahmed, 26, from Treforest, Rhondda Cynnon Taf, guilty of harassment following a trial.

He gave them a conditional discharge and fine.

Davies-Jones said she felt "scared and intimidated" after being approached by Behit, 31, and Ahmed, 26.

The court heard Behit and Ahmed had leaflets describing the MP as a "full-blown supporter of this genocide" in Gaza.

Davies-Jones was approached while leafletting in the defendants' hometown on 26 June last year ahead of the general election.

The MP said she was asked questions "around the conflict in Israel and Palestine and my conduct as an MP, if I had taken part in votes, membership of organisations such as Labour Friends of Israel".

"They asked me about the ceasefire and why I had abstained. I clarified I hadn't abstained, I wasn't in the country, I was paired in that vote," she added.

"It was escalating in terms of passion and intensity. We walked off in the opposite direction. We felt scared and intimidated and we wanted to leave the situation.

"They began to follow us. They were shouting and bellowing down the street at us - 'why do you support genocide, why are you murdering babies, Alex Davies-Jones, do you support genocide?"'

Davies-Jones said the two defendants also handed out leaflets and put posters on the Labour office in Pontypridd that referred to politicians "enabling genocide".

She told the court their actions left her feeling "terrified" and a video of the confrontation was uploaded on to social media with the caption, describing Davies-Jones as racist, was "manipulated in a way that made it seem I had lied".

Davies-Jones said, as a result of the incident, she reduced campaigning sessions and had to be accompanied by close protection officers.

Sentencing, Mr Goldspring told Ahmed and Behit: "This was part of a deliberate and sustained campaign targeting the complainant.

"This course of conduct was clearly designed to cause alarm and distress to her and she did experience alarm and distress. She stopped canvassing.

"It was not reasonable and it was oppressive."

The judge said the defendants did have rights to freedom of speech but this case went "beyond the boundaries" of this protection and was "beyond robust scrutiny or political process".

Ahmed, a final year architecture student at Cardiff University with no previous convictions, was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge.

Behit, who has a conviction relating to a protest in Cardiff last year, received an 18-month conditional discharge.

They were both ordered to pay £650 costs and a £26 court surcharge, at a rate of £20 per month.

Mr Goldspring added: "I would love to say you are remorseful. I suspect you are not.

"I suspect your views will be held until something happens very differently in that area of the world."

Giving evidence, Ahmed told the court she and Behit wanted to raise awareness of Davies-Jones's actions on Palestine ahead of the election and had planned to hand out and post leaflets that afternoon when they saw their MP coming towards them.

She said she filmed the video "because I thought nobody would believe me" adding that "it felt like a really normal conversation between people who don't agree on something".

Behit told the court "it was never about Alex as a person... part of her job as an MP is having people look at her policies, her opinions and how she voted," she said.

Speaking outside court, Behit said both defendants would appeal against their convictions.