I was arrested for opposing the Palestine Action ban, we need to confront the war machine

The revolt over the proscription of Palestine Action runs deep (Photo: DefendourJuries on X)

Cops seized at least 532 people in London last Saturday in one of the biggest mass protest arrests in British history. I was one of them, grabbed in Parliament Square for holding a placard saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” 

Nearly all of us were arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000—which targets anyone who “carries or displays an article, to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”.

The British state is in trouble over its ban on Palestine Action. Millions of people, watching the Israelis escalate the starvation regime in Gaza and announce a new military occupation, agree that the criminals are those who carry out and enable the genocide.

Their sympathy is with all those who protest against it, including Palestine Action. Binyamin Netanyahu, Keir Starmer and Donald Trump are the terror supporters, not those who stand up to them.

Up to 1,000 people, organised by the Defend Our Juries (DOJ) group, gathered in Parliament Square with the offending sign. Some moved off after holding the sign for an hour, which was the original aim, but many remained.

In my immediate group was Moazzam Begg, the steely activist who was caged in Guantanamo Bay for three years. There was also a bus worker, a student who said she “couldn’t just march” over Palestine, and a young man who had begun activity in Black Lives Matter.

This was mass defiance. It was carefully organised, unafraid of highlighting radicals such as Moazzam and went well beyond personal witnessing. It also stretched the cops who had to ignore some sign-holders. The police officer who arrested me had come from Dyfed-Powys in West Wales.

The revolt over the proscription of Palestine Action runs deep.

An open letter from over 50 academics and activists, including Judith Butler, Angela Davis, Naomi Klein and Alex Callinicos, last week denounced the ban and fully backed those who fight it. “We applaud the growing campaign of collective defiance that aims to overturn Cooper’s ban,” it said and specifically applauded DOJ.

Amnesty International UK’s chief executive asked the cops to “act with restraint by not arresting protesters who are merely carrying placards that state they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action”.

Some 300 Jewish British citizens last week condemned the ban as “illegitimate and unethical”.

The 278 Labour MPs who voted for the ban are scared the courts may rule it illegal in a judicial review set for November.

So Labour hopes it can slur and intimidate those who defend protest rights and stand for Palestine. Starmer told the party’s national executive last week that “Palestine Action has a history of targeting Jewish-owned businesses”—a vile lie. 

DOJ is preparing another sign-holding protest next month. Let’s hope the whole Palestine movement can support it. It’s understandable that some people don’t want to risk a terror conviction that might impact their job.

But, as many did last Saturday, everyone can come and show solidarity, hold a pro-Palestine placard, and show the cops what they think of them. In particular, the trade union leaders and the top figures in Your Party should be there, and urge others to join in.

The unions have shamefully failed to confront the removal of protest rights over many years. That’s a betrayal of key campaigns, but it also means government ministers and the cops are more prepared to use the military against strikes and crush effective pickets—as they have tried to do in the Birmingham bin dispute.

We have to confront the argument that the DOJ actions are a diversion from building a mass movement. The point is that there should be increasing connections between the 300,000 who marched to Downing Street for Palestine and those who defied the cops in Parliament Square, just a few hundred metres away.

It’s wrong to denounce the big events as worthless “A to B marches”. It’s also wrong to abstain from active solidarity with those directly confronting the war machine and state protest bans.