Country that lectures Iran on democracy arrests another 523 people for peacefully protesting
The absurdity surrounding the UK’s treatment of Palestine Action and its supporters has reached new lows. On Saturday, 523 protesters were arrested in Trafalgar Square, simply for calling to “Lift the Ban” on the group. This is the same ban the High Court ruled unlawful back in February, calling it a disproportionate attack on free speech and assembly.
The government is appealing the ruling, despite the utter farce of imposing the ban which remains in force until the appeal has been heard. We are now in a situation where people are getting arrested for breaking an illegal law. My head hurts.
Police had initially agreed to halt the mass arrests, only to resume them, despite the logistical problems, huge costs, and reputational damage to the police.
A staggering 2,700 people have now been detained under terrorism legislation for holding signs or attending silent vigils. The question you have to ask is why? Surely, anti-terror legislation is supposed to protect the public, not Israel and its arms manufacturers? Literally nobody else is benefitting, not even the politicians who introduced the law. It is a disaster for everyone, but particularly for the public who are seeing their rights eroded to please a genocidal foreign power.
Just look at the arrested terror suspects: they were aged from 18-87 and included Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja who said: “the actions of Palestine Action were highly patriotic, because they were pretty much protecting our country from getting involved in serious war crimes, and breaking international law."
For legal reasons, I’m not saying that I do or do not agree with Del Naja, and I’m certainly not inviting support for Palestine Action, but I am saying the arrest of this man, and many others, is an affront to our so-called democracy. Any country that decides such people are terrorists has clearly lost the plot.
As protest organisers Defend Our Juries pointed out, this is about everyone’s right to protest: “If left unopposed, what starts with an unlawful ban on one direct action group will lead on to the removal of everyone’s rights and freedoms.”
Former Met Police chief superintendent Dal Babu could see the obvious problems. He said: “I think the difficulty is, when you’ve got 700 or 800 people who are willing to be arrested, that just isn’t practical. The optics of this will be very challenging for the police.” No shit.
One elderly man was arrested while using a walking stick and an elderly woman was carried away as the crowd chanted "shame on you" at officers. One woman was such an extremist she made a peace sign as she was dragged into a police van. All I can say is those officers must feel like real heroes. They’re really keeping the public safe here.
The Metropolitan Police said the decision to make the arrests was an operational one, based on intelligence they have obtained. What the hell did that intelligence say? That a bunch of Grannies had been spotted buying stationery at Staples? That they were coming armed with cardboard and Sellotape? That they were wielding marker pens with lethal intent?
We are witnessing the largest wave of civil disobedience in recent British history in protest against the genocide in Gaza that has spread into Lebanon. Meanwhile, the retrial for the Filton 6 is underway after they were acquitted of the most serious charge of aggravated burglary. Shockingly, they are barred from explaining their motivations to the jury, despite this being what won their previous acquittal.
As Israel sets the Middle East on fire, the British government’s priority appears to be silencing those who are calling for peace. No civil disobedience would be happening if the UK simply halted arms exports to Israel, as required by British and international law.
In late March, Belgian authorities seized a British arms shipment heading to Israel after an investigation by Declassified UK exposed discrepancies in the cargo manifest. Officials opened 33 crates and discovered undeclared military items such as laser sights, fire control systems, and spare parts for fighter jets.
While Belgium is treating this as a breach of its own export controls, the shipment has drawn little scrutiny in the UK. Instead, British police seem far more focused on arresting critics of Israel.
As Tucker Carlson recently put it to Victoria Derbyshire:
“It is illegal. It is a crime for which you can be arrested in Britain right now, criticising Israel. If you say you’re for Palestine Action, you can be arrested. A lot of people have been arrested. So in other words, it is not legal in Britain to criticise another country.”
He added: “Why is it banned? It is banned because the Israeli government wanted it banned.”
Clearly, this wave of mass arrests is not about terrorism. It’s about protecting a deeply unpopular foreign policy at the expense of our basic democratic rights. We are locking up our peace makers for the sake of the worst people on earth.
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I don't know if people are aware of how egregious this is. It is an outright attack on the age-old human right of Protest. The Government is wrong and afraid, but it will not suffer the consequences of its unlawful actions. We will. The inevitable costs of its ridiculous actions will be borne by taxpayers, money that should go to relieving poverty.
"It is a disaster for everyone, but particularly for the public who are seeing their rights eroded to please a genocidal foreign power."
It is not foreign...it is the same genocidal power that created Fort Zion to control the Wild East for resource extraction.
Think BP, installers of the Shah with their WA$P brethren in the CIA back in '53, and BAE weapons systems...main beneficiaries of the oil-arms circular eKKKonomics to the in$ta££€d Arab 'royals'.