BANNING Palestine Action under terror laws has fuelled far-right violence, said local charity walkers today after being violently abused while fundraising for their twin town of Al-Mawasi in Gaza.

Two members of the Hastings-based Friends of Al-Mawasi group told of being viciously attacked by Israel supporters while waiting for fellow demonstrators to arrive for a fundraising walk.

Richard Wistreich, who is Jewish and whose father escaped the Holocaust, was repeatedly called a Nazi by Israel supporters, while a woman was pushed to the ground and called a “f****** terrorist” for wearing a keffiyeh.

The East Sussex seaside town twinned with Al-Mawasi in 2022, when it was a rural farming and fishing town in western Khan Younis.

Grace Lally, who helped set up the group and campaigned for the twinning, said that she believes there is a “clear link” between the government action and the abuse which took place on July 20.

She said: “Those extremists have been empowered by a government that says, people supporting Palestine are terrorists.

“That has emboldened people on the far right, extremists, to sort of see anyone who’s supporting Palestine as a legitimate target.”

Mr Wistreich, a member of Jews for Justice Hastings, described seeing cars parked on their route to Bexhill, with people waving Israeli flags and shouting abuse as the protesters passed by. Both incidents were reported to Sussex Police.

Hastings Borough Council passed a motion last month to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an end to all arms sales to Israel and to support the town’s friendship with the people of Al-Mawasi.

On Sunday, roughly 100 protesters ran a second fundraising walk from Hastings beach along the coast to Bexhill “in defiance” of the abuse, a day after 522 people were arrested in central London for showing support for Palestine Action.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones told broadcasters yesterday that supporters of Palestine Action will “feel the full force of the law.”

The Met Police said that its counter-terror officers will work to secure charges against those arrested.

But it admitted that it would be “entirely unrealistic” for officers to recognise individuals who were pictured online apparently returning to Parliament Square after being released on bail, under conditions not to attend future demonstrations related to Palestine Action.