Police Scotland make no arrests at Lift The Ban protest while forces in England and Wales arrest everyone in what appears to be a coordinated responseE:

PRESS RELEASE:

Police Scotland make no arrests at Lift The Ban protest while forces in England and Wales make arrests at every action in what appears to be a coordinated response

Local police forces have made arrests at all nine Lift The Ban actions in England and Wales today (Tuesday 18 November), whereas Police Scotland did not arrest the 49 people holding the same signs in Edinburgh.

The different approaches in Scotland, England and Wales illustrates the widening gap between enforcement of the proscription of Palestine Action across the nations. This is the fourth Lift The Ban action in Edinburgh where Police Scotland have chosen not to make arrests (although they have separately arrested and charged a seemingly random ten people from the 85 who took action in September).

Earlier this year the Scottish Counter-Terrorism Board concluded that Palestine Action “has not been close to meeting the statutory definition of terrorism.” A legal challenge against the ban has recently been filed in Scotland which could lead to a constitutional crisis if Scottish and English courts reach different decisions.

Police in North of Ireland, Derry specifically, have similarly chosen not to arrest people holding signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Legal experts say that Police Service Northern Ireland need the proscription “like a hole in the head” and they suspect that PSNI were not consulted on the proscription by the Home Secretary.

This will be put to the test again in Belfast on Saturday 22nd November will be the first Lift The Ban action in the city. There have been regular independently-organised sign-holding actions in Derry but no arrests or charges have been brought to date in the north of Ireland.

COORDINATED RESPONSE

Under our constitution, the police are operationally independent of central government. That’s why police forces in Derry, Edinburgh, Totnes, Truro and Kendal have chosen not to arrest sign-holders at previous Lift The Ban actions - choosing instead to respect their right to protest and to freedom of expression.

Yet every single police force where Lift The Ban actions took place today in England and Wales chose to make arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000 of people sitting peacefully holding handwritten signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

This even includes Truro where Devon & Cornwall Police seem to have made a U-turn on their decision to make arrests at the last two Lift The Ban actions. Although after arresting eight of the 26 sign-holders, the police seem to have exhausted their available capacity for arrests and left the scene leaving some 18 people defiantly holding signs in the rain as the night draws in. Nevertheless this sparks a worrying concern about how such a coordinated response might have been effected.

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:

“The opening day of our November wave of actions has put the spotlight on the widening tension between Holyrood and Westminster over the ludicrous and authoritarian ‘terror’ ban on a domestic direct action group. These tensions will be highlighted further with the first Lift The Ban protest in Belfast on Saturday.

“Previously many police forces have chosen to not enforce the ban, as is their constitutional right. So the uniform response by police forces today looks worryingly coordinated. The Home Office needs to answer: did it put pressure on local forces to make arrests?

“What kind of society do we live in when anyone who has the temerity to think and say the obvious - that the UK government is complicit in mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and that Palestine Action only ever acted to save lives - is now absurdly arrested under our terrorism laws?”

237 people took action today across the UK. 142 arrests have been confirmed by Defend Our Juries supporters and observers. Local forces in Abberystwyth, Truro and Oxford seemed to be completely overwhelmed and confirmed they will not return to arrest the remaining sign-holders. These numbers break down as follows:

No arrests of 49 signholders in Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth House
27 in Nottingham, Green Heart (paved area near the new central library)
12 of 28 in Aberystwyth, Bandstand
25 in Leeds, Dortmund Square
20 of 27 (six told they would be followed up later) in Oxford, Clarendon Building
17 of 22 in Gloucester, Cathedral
12 in Caerdydd (Cardiff), Senedd
12 in Newcastle, Civic Centre
9 in Northampton, The steps of Guildhall
8 of 26 in Truro, Truro Cathedral

WAVE OF ACTION CONTINUES ON THURSDAY

The next action is on Thursday 20th at the Ministry of Justice. The MOJ has been chosen as the site for the first London action because it oversees the prisons that are holding 29 alleged Palestine Action activists without trial, six of whom are now on hunger strike demanding their immediate right to bail and a fair trial. The MOJ also oversees the court system where - should the judicial review be unsuccessful - thousands of people charged with terrorism offences for holding cardboard signs will have less than a half an hour each to defend themselves.

The wave of action then continues as follows:

The Peace Garden in Tavistock Square, London (Saturday 22nd)
Derry at Guildhall and Belfast at The Square between the courts on Chichester Street (Saturday 22nd)
The Home Office (Monday 24th)
The Royal Courts of Justice (Wednesday 26th)

And on Saturday 29 November at 1pm in these locations:

Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth House
Caerdydd (Cardiff), location to be announced nearer the date
Manchester, St Peter’s Square
Birmingham, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH (opposite Museum and Art Gallery)
Cambridge, Guildhall, opposite the market: Guildhall Place, Market Hill
Bristol, College Green, BS1 5TJ
Sheffield, Cathedral
Exeter, outside Central Station, Queens Street
Lancaster, outside Lancaster Castle

All actions start at 1pm except for Derry which is at 3pm.

QUOTES FROM PEOPLE TAKING ACTION

Chris Bird, 72, a farmer from Truro who took action today in Truro said:

“In 1944 my father landed in France on Sword Beach on D-Day. He was fighting against fascism, the holocaust and genocide, and for people’s freedom. And now we see the same thing that the Nazis were doing happening again in Gaza. It’s just wrong and I was there today to oppose genocide and to support Palestine Action.”

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries Cornwall said:

“Outside Truro Cathedral police were there from the outset, filming all those present but clearly without either the vehicle capacity or the numbers on site to arrest all 26 sitters. Shortly before 2pm they began issuing individual warnings, before commencing arrests at about 2.15pm. Appearing to target those who had already been arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at previous Lift The Ban actions, arrests then proceeded slowly.

“Having arrested only 8 out of 26 sitters, all three police vans as well as all Police and Police Liaison personnel left the site, having first stated their intention to return and continue with the arrests once these eight people had been processed at Camborne and Newquay police stations, if sitters are still in place at that point.

“The two police stations where processing is taking place are about a 45 minute drive from Truro, so it seems unlikely, based on their own account, that the police arresting teams will be back on site before dark. At the time of writing most of the remaining sitters are still gathered in front of the cathedral, having decided to stay in place for now. A drone hovers overhead, where it has been surveying the action since it began.”

Leigh Evans, retired Emergency Nurse with extensive experience of working in the West Bank and Gaza, who took part in the Global Flotilla, and who took action in Cardiff said:

“Protest and direct action are prerequisites for democracy in the face of fascism. Direct action is the only thing that has ever been proved to work against oppression and apartheid. Every right we have has been won for us through protest and direct action from the Levellers in the 17th century to the suffragettes in the early 1900s. Direct action and protests give us our human rights.”

Elle Miller, Railway Maintenance Worker, age 43 from Glasgow, explained why she would be taking part in both Edinburgh actions as well as the action in London on 26th:

"In today’s politics, it feels like the only way to influence decisions is to have millions in the bank. Without protest, slavery would still be legal, women couldn’t vote, and same-sex marriage would still be illegal. We know protest works precisely because successive governments are trying to criminalise it. If sitting peacefully with a cardboard sign makes me a terrorist, then I hope my great-grandchildren will be as proud of me as relatives of the suffragettes are today.

“The decision to proscribe Palestine Action was driven by corporate interests profiting from arms sales to those committing atrocities in Palestine and beyond. It is not illegal to challenge those interests or to campaign to change unjust laws. The Scottish Government has recognised the genocide in Palestine - so why are Police Scotland arresting peaceful protesters? Who do they serve: the UK Government, or the people of Scotland who oppose this ban?"

Oliver Baines OBE, 74, a farmer and retired charity CEO from Grampound Road who was among those holding signs in Truro on the 18th, said:

“Devon and Cornwall Police pride themselves on their community policing, so a group of local residents sitting in silent vigil opposing genocide was always going to create a dilemma for them. When eight were arrested in July, the police were courteous and, in many cases, clearly uncomfortable. Their subsequent change of policy was typified by one officer who described the October protest as 'lovely and peaceful'.

“Our argument was never with the police but with the UK Government, with its shameful attack on our civil liberties, and with its appalling record of complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. Equating solidarity with Palestine and opposition to genocide with being a terrorist is a gross insult to all peace-loving people.”

BACKGROUND TO LIFT THE BAN CAMPAIGN

So far over 2,000 people have been arrested under terrorism legislation for taking part in these now famous actions in which people sit silently holding handwritten cardboard signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Around 170 of these have so far been charged with section 13 offences under the Terrorism Act 2000, offences which carry a maximum six month prison sentence.

The demands of the Lift The Ban campaign are firstly to lift the ban on Palestine Action and secondly to name the ongoing Israeli assault on the Palestinian people as a genocide and comply with the resulting legal obligations, including by ending all military trade and other military cooperation with Israel.

At the Court Of Appeal ruling on 15 October, Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori won two more grounds for her Judicial Review at the same time as the government lost their attempt to block the legal challenge of the ban, making the Judicial Review twice as likely to succeed in overturning the proscription.

Last month the UN issued its draft report Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime detailing the complicity of states including the UK in the destruction of Gaza. Amongst other things, the UK continued to supply arms including components for F-35 stealth bombers, undertook daily surveillance flights over Gaza for Israel, maintained normal trade relations, and allowed Israel to undertake international crimes with impunity.

The genocide continues to unfold in Gaza. Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 245 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 627. Israel continues to attack Gaza, with at least three airstrikes on Wednesday. The UN says Israel is blocking vaccines and baby bottles. More than 1,500 buildings beyond the “yellow line” have been destroyed. And in the West Bank yesterday settlers set fire to vehicles, including dairy trucks.

CHORUS OF CRITICISM

This week the government’s proscription of Palestine Action has come under fire yet again from expert bodies both in the UK and internationally with the release of three separate reports. On Tuesday a panel of experts including a former MI6 director said terrorism laws needed rewriting as they had become too broad to keep the country safe, hitting out at the ‘serious property damage’ clause” which has resulted in a nonviolent domestic direct action group being designated as terrorists for the first time.

Later that same day it was revealed that an advisory body had told ministers that banning Palestine Action could backfire by ⁠inadvertently raising the group’s public profile, ⁠becoming “a flashpoint for significant controversy and criticism” of the government, heightening Muslim-Jewish community tensions, and being seen as evidence of bias towards Israel.

On Wednesday morning five UN experts published their letter to the UK government saying the ban is unjustified, unnecessary and a move more associated with authoritarian states.

BACKGROUND TO PRISONERS’ HUNGER STRIKE

28 prisoners are currently being held in UK prisons without trial for allegedly taking part in actions claimed by Palestine action. They are known as the Filton 24 and the Brize Norton Five. Most will be held for two years without trial - exceeding the six month pre-trial custody limit - because the Crown Prosecution Service is claiming there is a “terrorist connection” on the basis of criminal damage. However no charges have been brought under the Terrorism Act against these prisoners and the actions took place before Palestine Action was proscribed by the government.

Six of these prisoners are now on a rolling hunger strike, some now in their third week. The hunger strike started on Saturday 2nd November - Balfour Day - with two people after the Home Secretary failed to respond to their demands including immediate bail, access to documents necessary for the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action. The strike is “rolling” because more people continue to join the strike as their demands remain unmet. The conditions of their detention have been criticised by UN experts in a letter to the UK government.

In August of this year T Hoxa of the Filton 24 went on hunger strike for 28 days, eventually winning most of her demands. According to Prisoners For Palestine, most of the 33 activists are expected to join the strike in coming weeks, in what could become the largest coordinated prisoners’ hunger strike since the 1981 Irish hunger strike led by Bobby Sands. For more information on the hunger strikers see Prisoners for Palestine.

For more information:
07413459619
defendourjuries@protonmail.com
https://defendourjuries.net/lift-the-ban/