Sarah Harte: Rationale behind hate speech bill is sound but it needs to define what ‘hate’ is
![Sarah Harte: Rationale behind hate speech bill is sound but it needs to define what ‘hate’ is Sarah Harte: Rationale behind hate speech bill is sound but it needs to define what ‘hate’ is](/cms_media/module_img/7714/3857440_3_articlesmall_255National_20Demonstration_20for_20Palestine.jpg)
The bill fails to define hate speech or hate crime. So how would it deal with claims that any criticism of Israel, such as current public demonstrations, is inherently antisemitic? Picture: Leah Farrell/Rolling News
![Then British home secretary Suella Braverman told police they should treat waving Palestinian flags at the November 12 march as a criminal offence. File picture: PA Then British home secretary Suella Braverman told police they should treat waving Palestinian flags at the November 12 march as a criminal offence. File picture: PA](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7714/3857374_17_articleinline_2.69130660.jpg.jpg)
Braverman’s attitude to a recent pro-Palestine march on Remembrance Day was alarming. She wrote to chief constables in England and Wales telling them that waving the Palestinian flag at a march might be a criminal offence. She also described pro-Palestine protesters as “hate marchers”.
![A vigil at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 7 in support of Israel and protesting the Hamas attacks on Israel. Picture: Markus Schreiber/AP A vigil at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 7 in support of Israel and protesting the Hamas attacks on Israel. Picture: Markus Schreiber/AP](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7714/3857428_8_articleinline_ISRAEL_20Gaza_20World_20190288.jpg)
As pointed out in the leader column in this newspaper recently: “The lesson from the past is that, at the start of the 1920s, nearly 80% of Germans were strongly in favour of liberal democracy. Yet within 15 years a largely progressive, highly civilised, modern country had turned into a brutal dictatorship.”
![A demonstration in Berlin on November 18 in support of Palestine and protesting Israel's attacks on Gaza. Picture: Fabian Sommer/AP A demonstration in Berlin on November 18 in support of Palestine and protesting Israel's attacks on Gaza. Picture: Fabian Sommer/AP](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7714/3857431_8_articleinline_ISRAEL_20Gaza_20Germany_20155338.jpg)