Palestine Action ban can be 'overturned by mass defiance'

Supporters of Palestine Action claim there are deep flaws in the UK government’s banning of the activist group after hundreds of people took to the streets for peaceful public protests in London.

More than 700 people have been arrested for demonstrating their support for the group in less than two months since it was banned on July 1.

Another protest is planned for September 6, with organisers Defend Our Juries changing tactics to outwit police. Attendees have been advised to withhold their details and refuse to comply with the “charade” of street bail, in which officers arrest demonstrators and bail them to attend a police station on another day.

Supporters have also been told to “go floppy” and not walk with police if arrested so officers must carry them away.

Its recommendation document published on Friday reads: “It will not be practically possible for the police to arrest 1,000 non-compliant people on the same day, and that is the strategic rationale behind non-compliance, it increases pressure on the state.”

More than 1,000 people are now expected to run the risk of arrest at the demonstration. The scale of the movement has led to calls from prominent public figures in the UK – including MPs who initially supported the ban – for a reversal.

Palestine Action was designated a terrorist organisation in July after members broke into RAF Brize Norton Air Base and poured paint on two military planes, causing £7 million ($9.4 million) of damage. The main target of its direct action campaigns has been Elbit Systems, an Israeli-owned weapons manufacturer with factories in the UK.

Police have intensified activities around demonstrations relating to the Palestinian cause since the UK ban came into effect. When Northern Irish rapper Mo Chara, of the band Kneecap, appeared in court in London on Tuesday to face terrorism charges for allegedly waving a flag in support of Hezbollah, a protest was staged outside the hearing.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed it had arrested one man under terrorism laws and reports from the scene said he had denied a banner in his possession had mentioned Palestine Action.

Campaigner Steph Pike, 58, a welfare rights adviser, joined a demonstration on August 9 in London's Parliament Square, where all 525 people in attendance were arrested.

She said she was compelled to attend after taking part in many marches for Palestine since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza began – and fearing that her right to protest was at stake. “It’s wider than Palestine Action itself,” she said of the regular demonstrations.

Some people on the day held signs saying "Stop the genocide, I support Palestine Action". They were all arrested over the ensuing eight hours, under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, and could now face up to six months in prison, if convicted.

Ms Pike sat in the square until she was arrested at around 4pm. The last demonstrator was apprehended at 9pm. People were granted bail and then “immediately” went back to the square to rejoin their fellow demonstrators, Ms Pike recalled.

“This is a pivotal moment, the ban is clearly unfeasible if enough people say 'no, we will not comply',” said university art lecturer Mat Osmond, 60, who was also arrested on August 9.

Like Ms Pike, he is awaiting his next police summons in October and said a conviction would affect his employment – a risk he was willing to take.

The hundreds of people who are gathering to support the group shows the widening gap between the public mood and the government on the Israel-Palestine issue, Mr Osmond said.

He had travelled from Cornwall with a group of demonstrators to attend the protest. “There’s a massive dissonance between what the public sympathises with and understand, and the government’s position,” he said.

“Palestine Action is not the story. It is the context in which the ban has been imposed and why they imposed it."

The UK government has said it could recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September and has in recent months changed its tone towards Israel, a long-time ally.

Britain continues to maintain a diplomatic, military and intelligence relationship with Israel, and the two have economic ties. While government ministers have said negotiations on a free-trade agreement with Israel have been suspended, other aspects of business, including some arms licences, remain unaffected.

Mr Osmond said a report in Private Eye that the government could be poised to award Israeli defence manufacturer Elbit Systems a £2 billion contract to train 60,000 troops a year was a sign of the UK government's "cynical" approach to the war in Gaza.

The High Court will decide in November whether the Palestine Action proscription is unlawful. Many of the campaigners arrested hope a decision in their favour would also annul the charges made against them.

But Mr Osmond urged people not to assume the ban will be reversed. The mood in the government, he believed, is to “double down”.

“It can almost start to feel like a done deal,” he said. “But it is irrational and unsafe to assume the ban will be overturned. I don’t think they’re in a hurry to initiate a reversal."

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has defended the ban, accusing Palestine Action of “an escalating campaign involving … criminal damage, intimidation, violence, weapons and serious injuries to individuals".

Yet politicians are questioning the ban’s feasibility, its implications on freedom of speech and the right to protest.

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who voted in favour of the ban, has since changed her mind. “Is terrorism really a vicar with a peaceful placard?” she wrote in The Guardian this week. "The status quo has come to mean equating peaceful witness with terrorism, and isn’t sustainable."

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, called for a review of the law because people were being arrested “en masse”, although he agreed Palestine Action had committed criminal acts and “are a very worrying organisation”.

The Lib Dems have written to the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation “to try to see if there are changes that can be made … so that it doesn’t happen again”.

The party had abstained from the decision to proscribe Palestine Action, “because we didn’t think the government had made that case”, Mr Davey added. “We absolutely accept that criminal acts have happened against British military assets and that is deeply worrying."

But he was concerned “innocent people exercising their freedom of speech and their right to protest in a peaceful way in Parliament Square were being arrested en-masse”.

Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer for terrorism legislation, is insistent the law should be applied to everyone equally, regardless of religion or ethnicity, “whether you look like a … I use the phrase 'a hairy foreigner', or you're some nice white-haired old lady sitting on the road,” he told the BBC.