If You Live in the UK, Visiting Israel Can Earn You a Visit From the Police

The next time you have guests over and the evening starts to drag, consider playing a new parlor game: U.K. or East Germany. 

These days, it's hard to tell which totalitarian regime had the more intrusive rules, but you do have to give it to the East Germans — the Stasi were a far more intimidating and professional secret police, while in the United Kingdom the authorities still send rather average Bobbies to try their intimidation tactics. 

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— The Free Speech Union (@SpeechUnion) October 18, 2026

A mother was referred to Prevent and visited by police at home because of her visit to Israel and her interest in“Jewish issues”.

In yet another shocking case, Holly Passmore, a mother of two from County Durham, was visited at home last July by two plain-clothes police officers who wanted to know why she had recently travelled to Israel.

The officers told Ms Passmore, who cares for her severely autistic nine-year-old son, that it was a “safeguarding issue”.

A police intelligence report seen by The Telegraph reveals that the referral said she “over-identified with the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and was “supportive of Israel to the point that she has travelled to Israel”. It also described her as having “MH” — meaning mental health — issues and being “vulnerable to negative influence”.

Three days after the visit, Ms Passmore lodged a complaint. Two more officers, including a superintendent, then came to her home.

“They said that, clearly, I’m not a terrorist,” she recalled, explaining that they were keen to reassure her that police did not consider her a threat or an extremist.

“I thought that was strange at the time. You don’t usually end up with a superintendent on your couch.”

Ms Passmore’s concerns deepened when she discovered that her NHS records had been updated to describe her as a “vulnerable adult”, before later being changed to say she was no longer vulnerable.

It is now even more clear that Prevent is being weaponised by activists to silence people for their lawful and legitimate views.

These vexatious complaints also waste police time and resources.

Enough is enough.

The latest outrage is the police questioning of Holly Passmore, who had the audacity to visit the Holy Land. Granted, visiting the Holy Land would get most people's attention, but generally, the questions would focus on what the experience was like. Some would ask about the war. Or perhaps what it is like to live in shadow of terrorist threats. Or perhaps you may wonder whether gefilte fish is really as disgusting as it seems, or whether hummus is better fresh. 

Personally, I would wonder whether Middle Eastern Jews had better-tasting food than the East European ones. 

What I would not wonder about is whether visiting Israel made you more likely to be a terrorist. That would be reserved for those visiting Gaza. But that's me. Yet the police questioned Holly about her unusual interest in Israel, based on the suspicion that caring about Jews and Israel made her dangerous. 

Holly Passmore was referred to Prevent, the UK's agency to intervene when people are suspected of harboring extremist views and becoming terrorists. And that is what triggered the police's interest in her. 

The police intelligence report Ms Passmore obtained under data protection laws acknowledged that there "is no CT [counter-terror] concern with an individual being supportive of Israel as a democracy and it would not be a CT concern for a person to travel there".

Yet less than three weeks after she returned from an educational trip to Israel organised by the Israeli embassy in London in June last year, two police officers arrived at her home.

"They asked me what my links are to Israel, whether I planned on returning to Israel," Ms Passmore recalled.

"They asked me why I was interested in 'Jewish issues', because County Durham it's not a Jewish area," she added. "They even asked me if I'd ever been to Auschwitz, and I said 'Yes'.

"I said to them, 'Look, I get that this is not something that people around here necessarily are interested in, but you know this is something that's important to me, and it is not illegal'.

"I just said that I had Jewish friends. I don't know why, really, I felt the need to explain myself, but you do in that situation. It's very intimidating."

Ms Passmore had been invited on a press trip to Israel alongside British journalists and social media influencers, having built an online following of her own.

To their credit, the higher-ups in the police department realized that the line had been crossed, and not by a little bit. The Superintendent doesn't leave his office as often as the Groundhog who predicts when spring comes, so it is worth noting that he did get off his behind to kinda, sorta apologize. But only sorta, because the police also put in her file that she was potentially unstable, covering their own behinds as well. Instead of admitting a mistake, they split the difference. Admitting she was not a likely terrorist, but not admitting that their actions were beyond the line. 

See? They aren't the Stasi. They are half Stasi. That's much better. 

Apparently, one of Holly's neighbors informed on her, another parallel to East Germany, where about half the population spied on the other half. 

Of course, the important questions are: 1) how many people who visit Israel because they support Jews commit terrorist attacks in the U.K.?; and 2), in what possible world would the police have shown up at a Muslim's house for the crime of visiting Mecca?

The questions answer themselves. 

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.

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