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.”
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.