Here’s What’s Happened Since the Palestine Action Ban

WARNING: Showing support for Palestine Action now constitutes a terrorism offence under UK law. Please bear this in mind if commenting on this article on social media.

Protests against the government’s proscription of Palestine Action are expected to continue across the UK this weekend following the arrest of over 100 people under counter-terror powers in a two-week period.

Home secretary Yvette Cooper ordered that Palestine Action be proscribed as a terrorist organisation after members of the group allegedly entered RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed red paint on two military planes. 

The proscription, which came into force on 5 July, is the first time a non-violent direct action group has been designated a terrorist organisation in the UK. Membership of or support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. 

Since then, more than 100 people have been arrested across Britain under terror legislation, including an 83-year-old priest and a human rights lawyer. 

On the day the proscription came into force, 29 people were arrested at a peaceful protest organised by campaign group Defend Our Juries in Parliament Square, London. Defend Our Juries had informed the Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley of its plans in an open letter before the demonstration took place. 

Reverend Sue Parfitt, 83, who was holding a cardboard sign that read “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”, told Novara Media moments before her arrest: “I know that we are in the right place doing the right thing. As my friend Ruth always says, ‘we cannot be bystanders’.” 

A week later, on 12 July, over 70 arrests were made at various demonstrations against the proscription of Palestine Action. The Met arrested 41 people in London, South Wales police arrested 13 people protesting outside the BBC offices in Cardiff, and Greater Manchester police arrested 16 people in response to a protest in St Peter’s Square. 

One arrest was also made in Leeds, while in Glasgow, a man was charged outside a music festival for wearing a T-shirt that read “Genocide in Palestine, Time to Take Action”, with the words “Palestine” and “Action” in a larger typeface than the rest of the text.

Policing responses varied widely across the UK, however, with police in Derry and Kendal not arresting protesters, but treating the protest in Cardiff as if “it were a serious terrorism incident”. 

South Wales police held those arrested in custody for an extended period, with Middle East Eye reporting that their doors were broken down, homes raided and belongings seized. Defend Our Juries said two of the 13 arrestees were Quakers, aged 78 and 80, and their food cupboards were tested for radioactive material.

Police have also applied the proscription to protesters who have not mentioned Palestine Action or showed support for the organisation. 

On 14 July, armed police in Kent threatened to arrest a woman, Laura Murton, on terrorism charges for holding signs saying “Free Gaza” and “Israel is committing genocide”. One officer told Murton: “Mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government.”

More demonstrations organised by Defend Our Juries are expected to take place in London, Bristol, Edinburgh, Manchester and Truro on Saturday 19 July.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “These protests will see many more ordinary people across the country take a stand, who don’t want to be handcuffed and detained in a police cell but refuse to stand by while our country collapses into an Orwellian nightmare where opponents of genocide are criminalised and silenced.

“Protest groups targeting property, not people, in order to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel’s war machine while it commits horrific atrocities – is obviously not terrorism. It aims to stop violence and terrorism being committed against the Palestinian people. 

“How long until this unprecedented, authoritarian proscription is used against racial justice, climate, disability rights groups and trade unions […]?”

Saturday will also see hundreds of thousands of people gather in central London at 12 noon for the national march for Palestine, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, CND and Friends of Al-Aqsa.

On Monday, Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action, will seek permission for a full judicial review of the group’s proscription at the High Court.