Despite deploying extra officers from forces as far afield as Wales and Scotland, the sheer number of people who turned up last weekend overwhelmed the Metropolitan Police, who over a period of several hours made more than 500 arrests. This is an extraordinary number for a single protest in one place and time – for comparison, the 2019 Extinction Rebellion mass arrests numbered 306, and 339 people were arrested in the 1990 Poll Tax riots.
Many hundreds of people took part in the ‘conditional commitment’ action last Saturday in Parliament Square, to show public outrage at the government’s proscription of Palestine Action, which has carried out non-violent direct actions for nearly five years to try and force Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems out of the UK. The conditional sign-up process is an agreement to take part, but only as long as a sufficient number of others also commit – in this case 500. If the number is not reached, the action doesn’t take place. Organisers claim to have counted more than a thousand banner-holders at the event last week.
As the Big Ben bell chimed 1pm, participants began writing the words “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” on blank banners, in contravention of Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which threatens up to six months imprisonment, or a theoretically unlimited fine (Level 5), for displaying an article “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”.
The protest was originally scheduled to last one hour, but police had only managed to carry away a hundred or so people in that time, and a large number of protesters chose to remain up to several hours more. At first, arrestees were taken away to custody suites at police stations, but as numbers grew, many were simply taken to the side, had their details logged, and then given ‘street bail’. Some of these claim to have returned to the protest.
In the run up to the action, organisers Defend Our Juries had to change their web domain after authorities appeared to have forced their website offline. On Thursday, minutes before a Zoom meeting was due to start, due to provide a legal briefing to hundreds of participants, it was closed down after a request from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
A Telegram channel used to relay messages about the campaign to thousands of supporters
has also been closed down “for violating local (UK) laws”.
No-one arrested last week was charged before being released, and out of more than a hundred arrests at previous protests, the police had only confirmed three charges (announced shortly before last week’s action as a deterrent). But yesterday, after organisers had already publicised that their next mass disobedience action will take place on September 6th, the Metropolitan police issued a statement which said they were “proud” of working speedily with the Crown Prosecution Service, announcing that a further 60 people will be prosecuted for “showing support for the proscribed terrorist group Palestine Action”.
The statement warns of the possible effects of a “terrorist” conviction on people’s lives, but Defend Our Juries say that they are already well on their way to a target of 1000 protesters willing to hold up cardboard banners at their next conditional commitment action planned for September 6th.
The proscription has received widespread condemnation from human rights organisations such as Amnesty, and from the UN’s Human Rights Commissioner, who described it as a ‘disturbing’ misuse of counter-terrorism legislation.
The High Court has given permission for Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori to challenge Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group. A full judicial review will take place during November in a three-day hearing.
