Activists in Exeter will be joining a national wave of protest against the banning of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’ this Saturday, November 29.
Around 25 protesters will defy the ban by sitting quietly outside Exeter Central Station from 1pm, holding placards stating “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
It’s part of what the organisers, Defend Our Juries, describe as ‘the most widespread civil disobedience campaign in modern UK history’; a series of peaceful protests in 18 towns and cities across the UK, starting on November 18, and running until November 29. Those taking part know they’re risking arrest for supporting a proscribed organisation; there were mass arrests at the latest sit-ins in London, and eight in Truro earlier this week.
The campaign has been timed to take place around the landmark three-day hearing at the High Court, on November 25 – 27, when the government will have to defend the lawfulness of its decision to brand Palestine Action a terrorist organisation. The ban was introduced in July, after members of the group entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes to highlight Britain’s role in partnering Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. Although this was an illegal act, it wouldn’t fit most people’s idea of terrorism, as a serious threat to the public. Yet the proscription has made it a serious criminal offence to belong to Palestine Action, or invite support for the group.
Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, launched a legal challenge to the ban, which the government failed to block at the Court of Appeal. Instead, the court upheld her case for a full judicial review, with two further grounds to challenge the legality of the proscription.
If Ammori wins, the ban will effectively be lifted, meaning that all the related arrests and charges under the Terrorism Act will be quashed.
A fight for civil liberties
Ammori has said the proscription of Palestine Action ‘sets a dangerous precedent’.
She said: ““Rather than being used to protect the public, the Terrorism Act is being used as a political tool to silence them.”
The ban certainly looks like another sinister step towards the wider criminalisation of dissent, as already seen in the jailing of peaceful climate protesters who target fossil fuel giants.
The Defend Our Juries website states:
“It is vital that our campaign succeeds – not just for Palestine Action but for democracy. Once the meaning of ‘terrorism’ is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead. If we let this go, the unions, and climate and racial justice movements, will be next.”
Earlier this month the government was warned by UN experts that the ban is ‘not justified’ and gives rise to ‘disproportionate restrictions’ on the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Two days earlier, an independent commission including a former MI6 director, former government ministers and legal experts released a report criticising the process the government used to introduce the ban on Palestine Action.
The report said:
“A [terrorism] definition that relies heavily on executive discretion risks inconsistency, perceptions of unfairness, and the treatment of legitimate protest as terrorism.”
The peaceful protests also pose a dilemma for the police. Local police forces are operationally independent of central government, meaning they have to reach their own decisions about whether to make arrests. So far, the Devon and Cornwall force have been inconsistent; no action was taken against placard-holders at a protest in Totnes this summer, but eight people were arrested in Truro on November 18, with police appearing to target those who had already been arrested at previous Lift the Ban actions. Around the UK more than 2,300 arrests have been made since the proscription of Palestine Action in July.
It’s a risk the Exeter activists are willing to take. One man who will be joining Saturday’s protest said:
“Our government has proscribed as “terrorists” non-violent activists trying to prevent genocide in Gaza and they have criminalised peaceful protestors who object. If I must be arrested for speaking out, so be it.”
Another, aged 78, said:
“Look at the 2000+ people who have been arrested for sitting down with placards with seven words written on them. Do they look like terrorists to you?”
A third, also in her 70s, said:
“If the present law existed in a previous age, the suffragettes would be outlawed as terrorists and holding a placard saying ‘Votes for women. Support the Suffragettes’ would have you arrested under section 13 of the Terrorism Act. Palestine Action has been proscribed. Who will be next?”
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:
“The chorus of condemnation against the ban continues to grow, as does the number of principled people standing up against the government’s authoritarian overreach.
“These historic mobilisations will honour those already imprisoned for risking everything to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel. The Filton 24 and Brize Norton 5 must be granted immediate bail and full access to the evidence they need to defend themselves.
“These actions will also, once again, be in solidarity with the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Both Conservative and Labour governments have been shamefully complicit in the horrors continuing to unfold in Palestine, and the use of counter-terrorism legislation to silence their critics must end now.”
