In Parliament Square for the third week in a row, a massive police operation was deployed in order to arrest protesters on suspicion of committing terrorist offences.
In London, fifty-five people were detained, joining more than a hundred across the UK taking part in similar protests.
The alleged offence is Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, namely “a person in a public place commits an offence if he wears, carries or displays 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”.
In a third weekend of defiance against what is widely regarded as government overreach and misuse of terrorism powers, dozens of people arrived with blank banners and sat on the steps in front of Ghandi’s statue, then wrote and displayed their (currently unlawful) message: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Police moved in swiftly to arrest the first dozen or so protesters, then regrouped and worked through the rest. With more than a hundred officers and dozens of police vans on site, the removal operation took just 45 minutes. Officers appeared to be instructed to act more aggressively than in previous weeks, at times dragging people out of the crowd, rather than lifting and carrying.
On the previous two Saturdays, police officers pushed through supporters and press to fully encircle protesters, forcing others out of the cordon formed, and even denying access to much of the accredited press. This time, in a complete change of policy, they allowed a small group of well-known Zionist trouble-makers to continue to stand amongst the protesters, shouting abuse and displaying offensive banners which claimed that there is no genocide in Gaza.
The London arrests went ahead despite organisers writing to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley ahead of Saturday’s protest, notifying him of their peaceful intent and urging him to direct police resources towards investigating crimes of genocide and other issues of rather more public interest than cardboard signs.
Like last week, the police response to several similar protests around the UK was totally inconsistent. There were ‘terrorism’ arrests in Manchester, Bristol and Truro, but in Edinburgh and Derry identical protests were ignored.
To date, UK police have arrested around 200 protesters for alleged terrorism offences in connection with the Home Secretary’s recent proscription. These include students, teachers, scientists, doctors, a vicar, a former politician, human rights activists and journalists. More than a dozen private homes have also been raided in the course of these arrests. In just three weeks there have been nearly as many terrorism arrests as there were in the whole of last year.
Several of those dragged away on Saturday were calling for people to support a planned much bigger mass action on the 9th August, and it does appear that calls are growing for the government to reconsider its proscription of Palestine Action. Yesterday, ignoring their own legal team’s advice, Derry City & Strabane District Council passed a motion which appeared to support the proscribed group, ‘rejecting the government’s rationale for the proscription’, and two councillors wore banned t-shirts in a photo published in the Belfast Telegraph. The well-known environmental commentator George Monbiot has indicated he will join a protest this Saturday in Totnes, risking arrest.
Lawyers acting for Huda Ammori, one of the co-founders of Palestine Action, were in the High Court again on Monday for a ‘permissions hearing’ for a judicial review of Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group. Mr Justice Chamberlain has reserved judgment until next Wednesday 30th July, when he will announce whether the legal process can go forward. It’s very likely however, that there will be a further delay while either side appeals his judgment, before any judicial review would go ahead.
