Protest group claims 1,000 people will flout Palestine Action ban this weekend

Activists opposing the proscription of Palestine Action intend to hold another mass event expressing backing for the terrorist group, with more than 1,000 people expected to risk arrest this weekend by holding up signs showing their support for the recently banned organisation.

Defend our Juries, an organisation which describes itself as “defend[ing] the right to a fair trial” and campaigns against judges “preventing juries from fulfilling their proper role”, has been at the forefront of a campaign to lift the ban on Palestine Action. Senior senior Defend our Juries members  were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday morning, ahead of a planned event where the group was due to announce a static protest on Saturday 6 September in Parliament Square. At a protest last month organised by the group, more than 500 people were arrested after holding up signs which expressed support for Palestine Action. Defend Our Juries claims that more than 1,000 people have signed up to express similar support at this Saturday’s event. Key opponents of the ban on Palestine Action include the prominent Irish author Sally Rooney, who has previously publicly expressed her support for the banned group, although she has not risked arrest by doing so in the UK.

Palestine Action, which was created in 2020, carried out wide-ranging attacks on locations and organisations which were deemed to be connected to Israel. This included attacks on defence organisations and factories, but also included sites in the Jewish community, including a number of Jewish charities with links to Israel, as well the targeting of a business in the heart of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill which was accused of letting out a property to an Israeli defence firm. Jewish communal organisations had been calling for the proscription of Palestine Action for some time, but the Home Secretary finally moved to proscribe the group in July, after footage was posted of group members infiltrating the UK’s largest air force base and damaging military planes.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries described the arrest of its key spokespeople as “scandalous”, “an unprecedented assault on free speech”, and “political repression”. They confirmed their intention to try and overwhelm the police with strength of numbers, saying “A law so blatantly unjust and facing such widespread opposition across the political spectrum, is impossible to enforce and the government will be forced to abandon it.”

The Metropolitan police has consistently made it clear that it is prepared carry out the arrests of all those who choose to break the law in this fashion.

Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, head of operations for the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Palestine Action is clearly proscribed as a terrorist group, and those showing support for this particular group, or encouraging others to do so can expect to be arrested, investigated and prosecuted.”