"Shoot the People": Meet Misan Harriman, Celebrated Photographer & Outspoken Advocate for Palestine

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AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now! , democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH : We turn now to the U.K., where the criminalization of Palestine-related activism is on the rise. On Monday, a British court of appeals upheld the government’s ban on Palestine Action as a terrorist group over causing, quote, “serious damage to property.” Palestine Action has carried out direct action protests at Israeli-linked military and industrial sites in the U.K. since it was formed in 2020. Last week, a judge sentenced four Palestine Action activists as terrorists for their involvement in a protest at a factory owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.

But it’s not just the government and the courts that are creating a climate of fear around speaking up about Palestinian rights. The latest high-profile target of right-wing media outlets is British photographer and activist Misan Harriman, an outspoken advocate of Palestinian rights, who is now being accused of promoting antisemitism. Harriman has over half a million followers on social media. His photographs of the Black Lives Matter movement went viral, and he became the first Black photographer to shoot the cover of British Vogue . He’s also extensively documented pro-Palestine rallies in the U.K., highlighting examples of Jewish solidarity.

AMY GOODMAN : Over 100,000 people have submitted complaints to the U.K.’s Independent Press Standards Organisation, following what many call a dishonest smear campaign against Harriman. An open letter in his support, signed by over 250 celebrity actors, artists, activists, writers and lawmakers, claims the accusations against him are entirely without foundation or fact.

Former Israeli negotiator Daniel Levy described the campaign as, quote, “a preposterous ad hominem attack, spuriously attempting to cast an anti-racist British cultural icon as an enemy of the Jews.” Daniel Levy was a former peace negotiator under two Israeli prime ministers.

Well, there’s a new documentary about Misan Harriman, about the importance of protest and taking a political stand as an artist, directed by the Nigerian British filmmaker Andy Mundy-Castle. It’s called Shoot the People . This is a teaser for the film.

MISAN HARRIMAN : When I look around what is happening today, it’s hard not to feel helpless.

UNIDENTIFIED : We shouldn’t deny that we’re in a really dark moment.

SISANDA ALUTA MBOLEKWA : I think the revolution should be televised. I think the revolution should always be documented.

MISAN HARRIMAN : My work is observing the human condition and making art that has purpose.

MARTIN LUTHER KING III : The images will be here forever, bringing people together to do something bigger than themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED : That’s the power of art, to say another world is possible, and we have the power to change things.

AMY GOODMAN : For more, we’re joined here in our New York studio by Misan Harriman. He’s also an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, a global ambassador for Save the Children UK and the board chair of London’s largest cultural center, the South Bank Center. Shoot the People has just opened in New York and Toronto this week, is distributed by Watermelon Pictures.

Misan Harriman, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you in studio. I know you’ll be having a Q&A at the Angelika tonight with Elliot Page.

MISAN HARRIMAN : Yes.

AMY GOODMAN : Before we go into the film and your incredible work over the years, can you talk about this repression of pro-Palestine activists, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, whoever they are? And your pictures of people are magnificent. The criminalizing especially of Palestine Action?

MISAN HARRIMAN : Yes. I mean, you’ve seen the recent, you know, court of appeal news re. Palestine Action. And what’s the first thing to say is it’s extraordinary that the jury of the case did not realize that they would be terrorism charges when they were deciding what their verdict would be. And I think that’s the big story in all of this, is how can a jury decide what it’s doing without knowing what the charges will be.

AMY GOODMAN : Explain exactly what you mean, because for a global audience, I don’t think there is as much — just having flown in from the U.K. and Ireland yesterday —

MISAN HARRIMAN : Yes.

AMY GOODMAN : — knowledge of Palestine Action and how the British government has categorized them.

MISAN HARRIMAN : Yes. So, there have been appeals, but the most important point at this stage of Palestine Action in the court case is that a jury of our peers decided the verdict without knowing what the final charge would be. And that is an extraordinary thing in any democracy in any part of the world. And I hope there’ll be an appeal, so that this can be retried. We will see. But I’ve never heard — and many scholars have spoken about this — of a jury deciding what a verdict will be, and then the actual verdict has a d…