The list of organisations condemning Yvette Cooper’s intention to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation has grown daily since the announcement was first made.
Among them:
- A group of Special Procedures Rapporteurs have contacted the Government warning that under the proposal, innocent citizens could be prosecuted and imprisoned for exercising basic rights to freedom of expression, and participating in political life. The UK voted for Security Council resolution 1566, which established that “mere property damage, without endangering life, is not sufficiently serious to qualify as terrorism”.
- Amnesty UK warned years ago that broadly-defined terrorist legislation risked one day unlawfully interfering with fundamental rights, and their Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh says that the government is acting unlawfully in attempting to sidestep ordinary criminal law now.
- Liberty’s Director Akiko Hart warns that wearing a logo could carry a prison sentence, and asks MPs to strongly consider the necessity and proportionality when they debate the proposal this evening.
- Even the normally timid Stop The War Coalition, seeing this as a threat to all of us, published unequivocal solidarity with anyone taking action that doesn’t harm anyone in opposition to the British government’s complicity in Israel’s crimes. See their speech in Real Media’s coverage of last week’s protest.
- The Palestine Solidarity Campaign reminded us that it was Keir Starmer who made the case for the defence of the ‘Fairford Five’ in 2004 (who sabotaged US military aircraft destined to take part in an illegal war), and they “utterly condemn” the attempt to characterise non-violent direct action as terrorism. They compare the action at Brize Norton to the Ploughshares activists who damaged warplanes At BAE Warton which were bound for Indonesia – they were acquitted on the basis they were trying to prevent genocide in East Timor. The PSC have launched one of several petitions against proscription.
- Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers In Britain, wrote to Yvette Cooper referencing UK polling that shows broad public support for stopping UK arms sales to Israel. The Quakers have a long and noble history of acting for peace, even when that means committing criminal acts against unjust laws. Real Media interviewed Quaker Sam Walton, and Methodist Minister Dan Woodhouse in April 2018 after they had been acquitted of criminal damage for attempting to disarm fighter planes destined for Saudi Arabia to use against Yemeni civilians.
- Green Party councillors from all around London, and deputy leader Zack Polanski have all signed a letter describing proscription as “a deliberate attempt to silence dissent” and “distract from the death and destruction the Israeli state is inflicting on civilians”, calling on MPs to “stand on the right side of history” and vote against the legislation.
- “The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine Action but from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s efforts to ban it” say leading musicians, artists, writers and actors in a joint letter from Artists For Palestine UK. Among the dozens of signatories are Tilda Swinton, Mark Wallinger, Brian Eno, Ken Loach, Julia Sawalha and Paul Weller.
- The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers have joined Andrew Feinstein, The Good Law Project, Sir Geoffrey Bindman and others in an open letter to the government warning that any attempt to criminalise peaceful direct action including by mislabelling it as ‘terrorism’ raises grave concerns. They accuse the government of using RAF Brize Norton to plausibly facilitate genocide, and also warn that current and future governments could misuse such a precedent against other interest groups in future. Clamping down on peaceful dissent in this way creates a breeding ground for violence among a frustrated public. Within days, the letter was signed by thousands of organisations and individuals.
This evening, MPs were asked to cast one vote on three different organisations. One is called Maniacs Murder Cult, and is linked to mass killings, another is the militant neo-Nazi Russian Imperial Movement. The third is non-violent direct action network Palestine Action – none of their activists have ever been convicted of violent crime, despite hundreds of actions against businesses directly linked to facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
To put these three groups into one vote is a cynical, sinister subversion of the democratic process, organised by a Home Secretary who has received hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding from pro-Israeli sources.
Tomorrow the legislation goes to the House of Lords. On Friday, the High Court will decide whether it can put a temporary hold on enactment while legal challenges are heard.
