Police arrest dozens at Palestine Action protest outside Labour conference
'Officers are in the process of making arrests on suspicion of wearing/carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation,' confirm police
Police have arrested dozens of protesters on suspicion of supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action outside the Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
At a protest organised by the Defend Our Juries group, activists carried signs stating: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Later a Merseyside police spokesperson said: “We can confirm that officers are in attendance at a Defend Our Juries protest near to The Wheel of Liverpool this afternoon, Sunday 28 September.
“Some of the people in attendance have displayed material in support of Palestine Action.
“Officers are in the process of making arrests on suspicion of wearing/carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation.”
Palestine Action was banned as a terror organisation in July after it claimed responsibility for an action in which two planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire the previous month.
It has also attacked Jewish owned businesses, including in Hampstead, north London.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We’ve come to remind everyone that the Labour party is in breach of its duty to act to prevent genocide under international law.
“Instead it made the cowardly decision to ban the direct action group that was trying to prevent genocide.
“Labour members and trades unions are overwhelmingly against their party’s complicity in genocide and the ban on Palestine Action.
“Yet party officials have shut down all the debates that members wanted to have on these issues during their conference.
“Labour also reneged on Jack Straw’s promise that the Terrorism Act he introduced would never be used against a domestic protest group.”
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