Protesters Arrested for Holding ‘I Support Palestine Action’ Signs

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.

An 83-year-old priest and a human rights lawyer were among around 25 people arrested for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” in Parliament Square today.

The action, by protest group Defend Our Juries, was the first organised challenge to the proscription of Palestine Action, which came into effect at 00.01 this morning.

This is the first time a non-violent, direct action group has been designated a terrorist organisation in the UK.

In an open letter sent to Met police commissioner Mark Rowley on Friday, Defend Our Juries outlined its plans. “We would like to alert you to the fact we may be committing offences under the Terrorism Act tomorrow, Saturday 5 July, in Parliament Square at about 1pm,” it said.

It portrayed the action – which it said would be nonviolent and pose “no risk whatsoever of anyone being harmed” – as both a challenge to the ban and a test of how it will be enforced.

“If we cannot speak freely about the genocide that is occurring, if we cannot condemn those who are complicit in it and express support for those who resist it, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning, and democracy and human rights in this country are dead,” it said.

Reverend Sue Parfitt, 83, told Novara Media the group was “testing the law”. She said she wasn’t afraid of being arrested. “I know that we are in the right place doing the right thing,” she said. “As my friend Ruth always says, ‘we cannot be bystanders’.”

She described the proscription of Palestine Action as “total nonsense” and said she hoped that “common sense will prevail”.

Minutes later, police began making arrests. Onlookers, who surrounded the group and chanted “free, free Palestine”, said they were shocked to see the peaceful protesters, many of whom were elderly, taken away in police vans.

“I just feel disgusted by this government,” a 20-year-old bystander, who asked not to be identified by name, said. “I voted for them and they’re now arresting people who are calling for a genocide to end. And this is a Labour government, they’re meant to have leftwing roots.”

Parfitt was one of the last to be arrested, alongside her friend.

Palestine Action applied to pause the ban in the high court yesterday, but lost both a hearing and an appeal shortly afterwards.

Speaking to the Guardian on Friday, Raza Husain KC, representing Palestine Action founder Huda Ammori, described the decision as “an ill-considered, discriminatory and authoritarian abuse of statutory power”.

“The main target has been stopping Elbit Systems … which markets itself as the backbone of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” said Husain. “As my client says: ‘The aim of terrorism is to take lives and hurt people, that’s the opposite of what we do.’”

The Met did not respond to Novara Media’s request for comment.

Additional reporting by Clare Hymer.