More than 425 people have been arrested at the largest demonstration yet opposing the proscription of Palestine Action.
Defend Our Juries, who organised the demonstrations, said there were 1,500 sign-holders in Parliament Square on Saturday at a fresh protest in London against the ban. At the previous major demonstration last month, 532 people were arrested for taking part. Participants gathered in Parliament Square by 1pm, many holding signs that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
At just after 9pm, the Metropolitan police said it had made more than 425 arrests. The Met’s deputy assistant commissioner, Claire Smart, who led the operation, said: “In carrying out their duties today, our officers have been punched, kicked, spat on and had objects thrown at them by protesters. It is intolerable that those whose job it is to enforce the law and keep people safe – in this case arresting individuals committing offences under the Terrorism Act – should be subject to this level of abuse.”
Or: I arrested a person who thought that it’s more important to write “I support Palestine action” (classified as terroristic organization in UK) on a paper than “I support Palestine”.
IMO, these people want to produce these pictures of arrests we are now seeing…
But I get it… It gets them media attention, just like driving with boats to a war zone to obviously get stopped there by military.
You are correct that the protests are specifically about the group Palestine Action. Which while they have committed crimes within the UK haven’t committed any acts of terror. And therefore should not be classified as terrorist.
The terror act was extremely controversial when it was enacted because it grants the government far reaching authoritarian abilities which are fundamentally against our standard of human rights.
It is only acceptable for extreme cases of groups which are in fact committing acts of terror against civilian population.
Therefore, it is protesting against the decision to designated a group which is not terrorist as terrorist
I kind of get what you are writing, but why are people focussing on the group that obviously broke the law (the law there sees it as terrorism) - and not just one time, but multiple times, the Wikipedia article is not short… - instead of the actual goal?
Why not forgetting the criminal (if you don’t want to call is terroristic) group, creating a new group that does not commit crime and protest for the actual thing???
To clarify, it is a significant stretch that under British law Palestine Action committed any acts of terrorism.
It is mostly an authoritarian overreach.
And the reason that people are protesting so vehemently is two-fold:
Firstly, it is critical for the functioning of our society, that the government is not able to freely carry out gross abuses of power such as the designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group.
Secondly, it is relatively trivial for the government to use their proscription of Palestine Action as a basis for the proscription of subsequent protest groups, and they have also already used it to arrest people simply for signs which say things like “free Palestine”.
In other words, protestors are able to make twice the impact with a single protest.
These people are opposed to the proscription of PA as a terrorist group, which is why they are protesting. They are making a point; that arresting these people for terrorism is ridiculous and authoritarian, and you might not like PA as a group personally but it sets a precedent, as the government can and will use “terrorism” to clamp down on any organisation or protest they deem to challenge them.
Thanks for your arguments without any insults.
I get your point, although from my view, it’s not a random organization that is just like any other, as the intensity of the crimes is… exceptional. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action#Legal_actions
The proscription was in response to their protest in 2022 where they aimed to destroy some equipment. This isn’t a terrorist act. The people involved were prosecuted under existing laws and served prison time for what they did, which were not acts of terror.
Their acts are not violent, they are not threatening anyone and calling throwing paint at planes “serious damage to property” is a stretch.
If we are going to give organisations the label of terrorist based on this flimsy criteria then Reform should also be proscribed for inciting people to protest at hotels where asylum seeker children are living, commiting arson and threatening violence. Physical violence against humans.
Palestine Action want the UK to stop sending military equipment to Israel. There are people in power making a fuck load of money off this, and they’ve proscribed PA after being out under pressure to make them go away.
What’s acts of terror has Palestine action committed for it to be classified as a terrorist organization?
i mean…they DID trespass onto a military airport and messed with military aircraft.
that was what they did, that got them the designation “terrorist organization”.
the planes were about to fly weapons down to israel, afaik, so i think they were doing something worthwhile, but, you know…bad idea regardless.
I don’t agree that this makes them terrorists, i think that’s some insane hyperbole on the governments side…but it does fit a very draconian definition of “terrorism”: simply defined a “using force to achieve a political goal”
the entire thing is stupid. this is the stupidest timeline, after all…
Sure they did something highly illegal, but anyone who thinks that illegally trying to stop a weapons shipment is terrorism is insane. If “using force to achieve a political goal” is terrorism, then nearly every country on the planet is a terrorist organization. Idk if thats like actually the UK’s definition or something but that is a ludicrous definition for terrorism.
Terrorists use terror. Its why they are called that. Not the use of force, but specifically attempting to strike deep fear into a civilian populace. At no point was PA trying to make people fearful. They were trying to stop people from dying.
yeah, i entirely agree!
it’s stupid and ridiculous!
I mean… The law of the UK defines what falls under terrorism. It does not matter what anyone thinks.
If a pro-Russian saboteur sabotages a weapon shipment to Ukraine, it will fall under the term, too.
The term is usually not used to describe nations. It’s to describe people or groups of people.
Then the UK’s legal definition is fucking stupid. Terrorism is when a group attempts to strike fear and terror into a populace to coerce them. It definitionally requires violence and fear.
The Wikipedia article mentions different definitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
None of those apply to what Palestine Action did though.
The wikipedia article goes into the details.
Also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action#Legal_actions
So they vandalized some planes and snipped some cables? And this got them declared as terrorists?
I’ve noticed a pattern where “terrorist” is often used as a stand in for any group that opposes the government.
Well, that was one of their actions. I mean, it might be daily business for you… But for me, getting access to fighter jets, sabotaging them and doing whatever else they did there does not sound like usual activity that some other organization would do. I have never head of someone from an LGBT organization seen sabotaging fighter jets… During BLM, there was also no organization sabotaging fighter jets or anything remotely similar to it.
Organizing a protest on the streets is the base form of “opposing”. Sabotaging stuff by breaking the law is for sure also “opposing”, but I don’t think, we should put that on the same level.
And did any of those actions threaten or cause fear in the public?
Probably not, but is that even necessary? No, it is not.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
Well the action was vandalism against two military planes, so that seems pretty well targeted against… Well, they’re inanimate objects, so I wouldn’t really describe it as violence, nor the planes as combatants or noncombatants themselves. So yeah it shouldn’t be considered terrorism.
Unless you’re a military plane contributing to genocide. I don’t think any people in the UK are planes.
Im not saying what they did isn’t illegal. I’m saying it’s not terrorism. This is like if someone was charged with murder and punished for it only to turn out all they did was rob a store and you’re like “well akshually ☝️🤓 they’re a criminal so it’s fine”
I mean, it may not match how you use that word, because you might think about bin Laden when hearing that word “terrorism”, but let’s see how the word is actually defined:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
So let’s look at these requirements:
violence: not really. Vandalism and destruction of equipment aren’t violence, to my knowledge PA has not harmed or attacked anyone.
non combatants: they targeted weapon shipments and military equipment. While I suppose you could argue the UK military aren’t combatants as they aren’t part of the war directly, but honestly that point is entirely moot given that they didn’t target people.
political and ideological aims: sure, they are a political activist organization. Obviously that alone doesn’t make them terrorists.
So, even by what Wikipedia defines as the “broadest” definition, not terrorists.
I mean, at an absolute minimum, terrorism requires violence against people, which they did not do. They targeted planes and other military equipment. That’s not terrorism no matter how much damage they caused.
Ahhh, the worst kind of crime, adding the word “action” to an otherwise acceptable protest sign. His kids will be proud of him! He helped stop hundreds of the worst criminal scum today and really kept the streets of London safe!
ACAB
Well, the one sentence supports people starving and the other one supports an organization classified as terroristic in the UK… It’s not the same thing…
When I write “Europe colonizing America in = bad” and I just append the word “fakenews” or “lies”, it changes the meaning…
All the other rancid bullshit in your comment aside, why do you imply that media attention in this case is bad?
Also, the one word difference means what, you support an org that spray painted a few jets? And that justifiably makes them all terrorists for wearing it on a T-shirt ?
I guess they’ve successfully removed all meaning from the word “terrorist” now.
Great base for a dialog…
Did I?? I said “I get it” above… I just spoke out what others here don’t want to speak out… I guess, people will be surprised again, when Greta will successfully fail to enter Gaza the next time (according to plan).
Read the Wikipedia article… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Action
BTW: Jets don’t park at the side of the road… You usually need to break into military related areas to do so, which is not what average people do.
And we have successfully replaced the debate about people starving in Gaza with a debate about a British group that continuously breaks the law.