Before the 30-year-old MP Zarah Sultana walks into any public meeting, she pauses to record her location and the time. It’s a security precaution taken on police advice in case she is attacked, and one that too many British politicians living with death threats will recognise. Like the panic buttons by their beds or instructions to vary the route by which they take the kids to school, it’s part of the grim price paid for being in public life. But amid escalating tensions over the Israel-Gaza war, it’s Sultana, as a Muslim woman passionately advocating for a ceasefire, who has emerged as a particular lightning rod for abuse.
Having recently been told she is now the most heavily targeted MP of all those monitored, earlier this week she matter-of-factly read out some of the more broadcastable messages she receives, for Sky TV’s cameras. “Send that bitch to Palestine, they’re low on targets,” was one.
