Social work academic interviewed by police over social media post

A social work academic has been interviewed by police following complaints over a pro-Palestine Facebook post.

Professor Michael Lavalette was invited to attend a “voluntary police interview” on 28 July, following complaints about a post which featured the words “There is only one solution Intifada, Revolution” alongside video footage from a pro-Palestine demonstration held in London in June.

The post led to nine complaints to the county council and two complaints to the police.

Lavalette is emeritus professor at Liverpool Hope University and a visiting professor at the University of Bethlehem. He is also the Independent county councillor for Preston Central, and a longstanding coordinator of the Preston Stop the War Coalition.

The complaints to the police are believed to come from prominent local pro-Israel activists objecting to the word ‘intifada’.

The history of the term is defined in the Encyclopaedia Britannica as an “uprising or rebellion” and has previously been applied to the uprising against the monarchy in Iraq in 1952 and the bread riots in Egypt in 1977. 

But the term is increasingly associated with Palestinian uprisings against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip.

Cllr Lavalette denies accusations that his use of the word ‘intifada’ is a call for violence against the Jewish community, and says the action taken by the police amounts to an attack on freedom of speech.

He told PSW: “I posted a video on the coach on the way back from a national demonstration for Palestine back in June.

“It showed people from Preston in the demonstration in London, as well as a drumming band, with the words ‘There is only one solution Intifada, Revolution’.

“There were nine complaints made to the council, which were dismissed because they were made from a personal social media account and not in my capacity as a councillor.

“But two people complained to the police, and they are very well-known pro-Israel activists locally in Preston.

“They must have searched my Facebook account to find something to be offended about and claim the word ‘intifada’ is calling for violence towards the Jewish community in Britain and around the world.

“They claim they felt very intimidated by the post.”

Lavalette’s response was delivered in a four-page personal statement at the police interview. 

He said: “In it, I make it clear that the word ‘intifada’ has a much longer history, and that up until November 2023, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in their own translations on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising refer to it as an ‘intifada’, wording that was subsequently removed.

“In my police interview, I also quoted a number of academic sources, which show that ‘intifada’ means a ‘shaking off’ of structures of oppression.

“The police said they had never seen such a long statement.”

The matter has now been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service, under Section 18 of the Public Order Act (acts intended or likely to stir up racial hatred).

Lavalette added: “This isn’t about people in Britain, it’s about what the people in Gaza need to do to shake off oppression. So it’s not even directly applicable to a public order offence in the UK.

“I think this is a clear breach of freedom of speech.”

But Jeremy Dable, the Jewish community representative on Preston’s Faith Covenant, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was “deeply angered” and felt “harassed and threatened” by the use of the word intifada, because of its “unambiguous historical association with periods of murderous violence against Jews”.

Dable argues the two Palestinian intifadas (of 1987-1993 and 2000-2005) chimed with the “historical definition” of the term, as both were characterised by violence.

“A defining feature [of the second intifada] was the targeting of public spaces, such as buses, where suicide bombings became routine,” he says.

“What it meant in Israel was that if you had two children going to school, you would send them on separate buses in the hope that at least one of them would come home alive. That’s intifada to me.”

The International Federation of Social Workers has expressed its support for Lavalette and said in a statement: “On behalf of the IFSW Education Commission, we express our full support and solidarity with Professor Lavalette as he faces this unjust and troubling investigation. 

“Professor Lavalette is not only a distinguished social work academic, but also a lifelong advocate for anti-racist social work, human rights, and social justice. His scholarship and activism are widely respected across the international social work community.

“Efforts to criminalise political speech, particularly when it challenges oppression and defends human rights, represent a profound threat to democratic principles, academic freedom, and the core values of social work itself. The right to speak out against injustice, to act in solidarity with oppressed peoples, and to advance social justice is central to our profession.

“We stand with Professor Lavalette and all those who continue to speak truth to power in the pursuit of justice and human rights.”

A Lancashire County Council spokesperson said the authority “does not endorse the views expressed” and that it has reminded Cllr Lavalette of his “responsibilities in public office”.